Electronic device for transmitting data related to authentication for NDP configuration, and operating method of electronic device

Abstract

In a first electronic device and an operating method of the first electronic device, according to one embodiment, the first electronic device may comprise: a first communication circuit for supporting neighbor awareness networking (NAN); a second communication circuit for supporting short-range wireless communication that is different from the NAN; a memory for storing at least one computer program; and at least one processor. When executed individually or collectively by the at least one processor, the at least one computer program can include the instructions: controlling the first communication circuit or the second communication circuit such that the electronic device broadcasts, before discovering a second electronic device, a first message including first information related to the size of data that can be included in messages to be exchanged when the first electronic device and the second electronic device perform authentication; before discovering the second electronic device, receiving, from the second electronic device, a second message including second information related to the size of data that can be included in messages to be exchanged when the first electronic device and the second electronic device perform authentication; controlling the first communication circuit such that after discovering the second electronic device, data related to authentication are divided on the basis of a size determined on the basis of the first information and the second information, and at least one third message including each piece of the divided data is transmitted to the second electronic device through the NAN; and communicating with the second electronic device through a NAN data path (NDP) configured on the basis of the data related to the authentication and the data related to the authentication transmitted by the second electronic device.

Description

Electronic devices and methods of operation of electronic devices for transmitting data related to authentication for NDP setup

[0001] One embodiment relates to an electronic device and a method of operating the electronic device, wherein the electronic device transmits data related to authentication for NDP setup.

[0002] With the proliferation of various electronic devices, speed improvements have been implemented for wireless communication that can be used by various electronic devices.

[0003] In addition, various types of proximity services utilizing low-power discovery technology are being developed recently. For example, proximity services (or proximity communication services) are being developed that enable nearby electronic devices to quickly exchange data through a proximity network. Proximity services may include low-power proximity services using BLE (Bluetooth low energy) beacons, or low-power proximity services based on low-power short-range communication technologies (e.g., neighbor awareness networking (NAN), Wi-Fi aware) (hereinafter referred to as "NAN") based on wireless local area networks (WLANs).

[0004] According to one embodiment, a NAN-based low-power proximity service (hereinafter referred to as “proximity service”) refers to a service that utilizes a proximity network that dynamically changes according to the movement of an electronic device, and a set of electronic devices that constitute a proximity network may be referred to as a cluster. In the case of a proximity service, electronic devices included in a cluster may transmit and receive signals for discovery (e.g., beacons) and service discovery frames (SDFs) (hereinafter referred to as “SDFs”) within a time duration (or communication section) that are synchronized with each other. For example, at least one electronic device in a cluster may transmit a signal to notify the existence of the cluster, and a new electronic device that wishes to join the cluster may receive the signal.

[0005] To reduce current consumption (or power consumption), each electronic device within a cluster can set different active durations during which it can transmit and receive signals. In NAN communications, the active duration during which signals can be transmitted and received can be referred to as a discovery window (DW). Furthermore, electronic devices within a cluster can reduce current consumption by maintaining a low-power state (e.g., sleep state) outside of the discovery window.

[0006] Electronic devices within a cluster can establish a NAN data path (hereinafter, NDP) between the devices. NDP is a connectionless data channel, and the time required to establish NDP can be reduced compared to other technologies.

[0007] An electronic device that wishes to set up an NDP may perform a discovery step of searching for (or discovering) a counterpart electronic device, an authentication step of exchanging authentication-related data with the discovered electronic device and performing authentication based on the authentication-related data, and / or a communication step of setting up an NDP and / or performing communication via the NDP if authentication is successful.

[0008] When establishing an NDP, an electronic device can exchange authentication-related data with an external electronic device to be connected via the NDP. The authentication-related data can be included in a NAN service discovery frame (SDF) follow-up message. The authentication-related data can be included in either the service descriptor attribute (SDA) field or the service discovery extension attribute (SDEA) field among the fields included in the NAN SDF follow-up message. The SDA field can include data having a size less than or equal to a specified size (255 bytes), and the SDEA field can include data having a size exceeding the specified size.

[0009] If the entire data related to authentication cannot be included in the SDEA field (for example, the entire data related to authentication exceeds the maximum size of data that can be included in the SDEA field), the electronic device may segment the data related to authentication and transmit a NAN SDF follow-up message including the segmented data in the SDA field or the SDEA field to the external electronic device.

[0010] For various reasons, electronic devices may have different maximum data sizes that can be included in a NAN SDF follow-up message (or SDEA field). For example, an electronic device that performs a service requiring high reliability may transmit and / or receive data of relatively small size by including it in a NAN SDF follow-up message to increase the success rate of data transmission and / or reception. As another example, an electronic device that includes a communication circuit with relatively low performance may transmit and / or receive data of relatively small size by including it in a NAN SDF follow-up message.

[0011] The electronic device may segment data related to authentication so that the segmented data can be included in the SDA field (or so that the segmented data has a size less than or equal to a specified size (255 bytes)) for compatibility and / or stability between different electronic devices.

[0012] However, if authentication-related data is segmented such that the segmented data has a size less than a specified size, the number of SDF follow-up messages may increase. If the number of SDF follow-up messages increases, the electronic device may transmit SDF follow-up messages during a larger discovery window period, which may reduce the transmission speed of SDF follow-up messages. If some of the SDF follow-up messages fail to be transmitted, the transmission of authentication-related data may fail, and the transmission of a larger number of SDF follow-up messages may increase the possibility of transmission failure.

[0013] The technical problems to be achieved in this document are not limited to the technical problems mentioned above, and other technical problems not mentioned can be clearly understood by a person having ordinary skill in the technical field to which the present invention belongs from the description below.

[0014] According to one embodiment, a first electronic device may include a first communication circuit that supports neighbor awareness networking (NAN). The first electronic device may include a second communication circuit that supports short-range wireless communication other than the NAN. The first electronic device may include a memory that stores at least one computer program. The first electronic device may include at least one processor. The at least one computer program may include instructions that, when individually or collectively executed by the at least one processor, control the first communication circuit or the second communication circuit to broadcast a first message, prior to discovering the second electronic device, the first message including first information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during an authentication process between the first electronic device and the second electronic device. The at least one computer program may include instructions for receiving, from the second electronic device, a second message including second information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during an authentication process between the first electronic device and the second electronic device, before discovering the second electronic device. The at least one computer program may include instructions for controlling the first communication circuit to, after discovering the second electronic device, divide data related to authentication based on a size determined based on the first information and the second information, and transmit at least one third message including each of the divided pieces of data to the second electronic device via the NAN.The at least one computer program may include instructions for performing communication with the second electronic device through an NDP (NAN data path) established based on the data related to the authentication and the data related to the authentication transmitted by the second electronic device.

[0015] In one embodiment, a recording medium storing at least one computer program including instructions that, when executed individually or collectively by at least one processor of a first electronic device, cause the first electronic device to perform operations, wherein the operations may include broadcasting a first message, prior to discovery of the second electronic device, wherein the first message includes first information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged between the first electronic device and the second electronic device in a process of performing authentication. The operations may include receiving, prior to discovery of the second electronic device, a second message, prior to discovery of the second electronic device, wherein the second message includes second information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged between the first electronic device and the second electronic device in a process of performing authentication. The above operations may include an operation of discovering the second electronic device, segmenting data related to authentication based on a size determined based on the first information and the second information, and transmitting at least one third message including the segmented data to the second electronic device via NAN (neighbor awareness networking). The above operations may include an operation of performing communication with the second electronic device via an NDP (NAN data path) established based on the data related to authentication and the data related to authentication transmitted by the second electronic device.

[0016] According to one embodiment, a method of operating a first electronic device may include an operation of broadcasting a first message, including first information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged between the first electronic device and a second electronic device during an authentication process, prior to discovering the second electronic device. The method of operating the first electronic device may include an operation of receiving, from the second electronic device, a second message, including second information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged between the first electronic device and the second electronic device during an authentication process, prior to discovering the second electronic device. The method of operating the first electronic device may include an operation of, after discovering the second electronic device, segmenting data related to authentication based on a size determined based on the first information and the second information, and transmitting at least one third message including the segmented data to the second electronic device through a neighbor awareness networking (NAN). The method of operating the first electronic device may include an operation of performing communication with the second electronic device through an NDP (NAN data path) established based on the data related to the authentication and the data related to the authentication transmitted by the second electronic device.

[0017] A second electronic device according to one embodiment may include a first communication circuit that performs neighbor awareness networking (NAN). The second electronic device may include a second communication circuit that supports short-range wireless communication other than the NAN. The second electronic device may include a memory that stores at least one computer program. The second electronic device may include at least one processor. The at least one computer program may include instructions that, when individually or collectively executed by the at least one processor, cause the second electronic device to receive a first message that includes first information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during an authentication process between the first electronic device and the second electronic device. The at least one computer program may include instructions for controlling the first communication circuit or the second communication circuit to transmit a second message to the first electronic device, the second message including second information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during a process in which the first electronic device and the second electronic device perform authentication, before discovering the second electronic device. The at least one computer program may include instructions for receiving, from the first electronic device, a third message including at least a portion of data related to authentication, the third message being segmented based on a size determined based on the first information and the second information, after discovering the second electronic device. The at least one computer program may include instructions for transmitting, to the first electronic device, a fifth message including at least a portion of data related to authentication, the fifth message being segmented based on a size determined based on the first information and the second information.The at least one computer program may include instructions for performing communication with the first electronic device through an NDP (NAN data path) established based on the data related to the authentication and the data related to the authentication transmitted by the first electronic device.

[0018] According to various embodiments of the present invention, a first electronic device and an operating method thereof may be configured such that, in the process of discovering a second electronic device capable of setting an NDP, the first electronic device may transmit first information related to a size of data that may be included in a transmittable message to the second electronic device, and the second electronic device may receive a second message including second information related to a size of data that may be included in a receiveable message. The first electronic device may determine a size of data to be divided based on the first information and the second information, and divide data related to authentication based on the determined size. The first electronic device may adjust the size to be divided according to a size of data that the second electronic device can receive. The first electronic device may divide data related to authentication such that the divided data has a size larger than a specified size, and may reduce the number of transmissions when transmitting data related to authentication. Accordingly, the first electronic device may improve a transmission speed of data related to authentication, and may also increase a transmission success rate.

[0019] The effects that can be obtained from the present invention are not limited to the effects mentioned above, and other effects not mentioned can be clearly understood by a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure pertains from the description below.

[0020] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0021] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a neighbor awareness network (NAN) cluster according to one embodiment.

[0022] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a protocol for transmitting signals of electronic devices included in a NAN cluster according to one embodiment.

[0023] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of data transmission and reception within a NAN cluster according to one embodiment.

[0024] FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a first electronic device and a second electronic device setting an NDP according to one embodiment.

[0025] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a first electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0026] FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a second electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0027] FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a first electronic device dividing data related to authentication based on first information and second information and transmitting the divided data to a second electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0028] FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a first electronic device divides data related to authentication based on first information and second information and transmits the divided data to a second electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0029] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a first electronic device dividing data related to authentication based on first information and second information and transmitting the divided data to a second electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0030] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a first electronic device divides data related to authentication based on first information and second information and transmits the divided data to a second electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0031] FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an operation method of an electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0032] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary electronic device (100) capable of performing the operations described in this document.

[0033] Referring to FIG. 1, the electronic device (100) may be one of various forms of electronic devices, such as a notebook (190), smartphones (191) having various form factors (e.g., a bar-type smartphone (191-1), a foldable-type smartphone (191-2), or a sliderable (or rollable) type smartphone (191-3)), a tablet (192), a cellular phone (not shown), and other similar computing devices (not shown). The components, their relationships, and their functions illustrated in FIG. 1 are exemplary only and do not limit the implementations described or claimed in this document. The electronic device (100) may be referred to as a mobile device, a user device, a multi-function device, a portable device, or a server.

[0034] The electronic device (100) may include components including at least one processor (110) (hereinafter, referred to as processor (110)), at least one memory (120) (hereinafter, referred to as memory (120)), at least one display (140) (hereinafter, referred to as display (140)), at least one image sensor (150) (hereinafter, referred to as image sensor (150)), at least one communication circuit (160) (hereinafter, referred to as communication circuit (160)), and / or at least one sensor (170) (hereinafter, referred to as sensor (170)). The above components are merely exemplary. For example, the electronic device (100) may include other components (e.g., power management integrated circuitry (PMIC), audio processing circuitry, an antenna, a rechargeable battery, or an input / output interface). For example, some components may be omitted from the electronic device (100). For example, some components may be integrated into one component.

[0035] The processor (110) may be implemented as one or more IC (integrated circuit (or circuitry)) chips and may perform various data processing. The processor (110) may include at least one electrical circuit and may individually or collectively perform distributed processing of instructions (or programs, data, etc.) stored in the memory (120). The processor (110) may include a processor assembly including one or more processing circuits. The processor (110) may include any processing circuit operative to control the performance and operations of one or more components (e.g., the memory (120), the display (140), the image sensor (150), the communication circuit (160), and / or the sensor (170)) of the electronic device (100). For example, the processor (110) (e.g., the application processor (AP)) may be implemented as a system on chip (SoC) (e.g., a single chip or a chipset). For example, the processor (110) may be implemented with multiple cores (or at least one core circuit), multiple chips, or multiple chipsets. For example, the processor (110) may include one or more processing circuits. For example, the processor (110) may include one or more processing circuits configured to individually and / or collectively perform various functions of the present disclosure. As a non-limiting example, at least a portion of the processor (110) may be included in a first chip of the electronic device (100), and at least another portion of the processor (110) may be included in a second chip of the electronic device (100) that is different from the first chip of the electronic device (100).

[0036] For example, the processor (110) may include a central processing unit (CPU) (111), a graphics processing unit (GPU) (112), a neural processing unit (NPU) (113), an image signal processor (ISP) (114), a display controller (115), a memory controller (116), a storage controller (117), a communication processor (CP) (118), and / or a sensor interface (119). These components of the processor (110) are merely exemplary. For example, one processor (110) may further include other components. For example, some components of the processor (110) may be omitted from one processor (110). For example, some components of the processor (110) may be included as separate components of the electronic device (100) outside of one processor (110). For example, some components of the processor (110) (e.g., memory controller (116)) may be included within other components (e.g., at least a portion of memory (120), an interface (e.g., available for connection to at least one component of the electronic device (100)), a display (140) and / or an image sensor (150)).

[0037] The processor (110) may cause other components of the electronic device (100) to perform various operations by executing instructions stored in the memory (120). The CPU (111) (or central processing circuit) may be configured to control components of the processor (110) based on the execution of instructions stored in the memory (120) (e.g., volatile memory (121) and / or non-volatile memory (122)). The GPU (112) (or graphics processing circuit) may be configured to execute parallel operations (e.g., rendering). The NPU (113) (or neural processing circuit, or artificial intelligence (AI) chip) may be configured to execute operations for an artificial intelligence model (e.g., convolution computation). The ISP (114) (or image signal processing circuit) may be configured to process a raw image acquired through the image sensor (150) into a format suitable for a component within the electronic device (100) or a component of the processor (110). The display controller (115) (or display control circuit, or display processing unit (DPU)) may be configured to process an image acquired from the CPU (111), the GPU (112), the ISP (114), or the memory (120) (e.g., the volatile memory (121)) into a format suitable for the display (140). The memory controller (116) (or memory control circuit) may be configured to control reading data from the volatile memory (121) and writing data to the volatile memory (121). The storage controller (117) (or storage control circuit) may be configured to control reading data from the nonvolatile memory (122) and writing data to the nonvolatile memory (122).The CP (118) (communication processing circuit) may be configured to process data acquired from a component of the processor (110) into a format suitable for transmission to another electronic device via the communication circuit (160), or to process data acquired from another electronic device via the communication circuit (160) into a format suitable for processing by the component of the processor (110). For example, the communication circuit (160) may include one or more communication circuits. The sensor interface (119) (or sensing data processing circuit, sensor hub) may be configured to process data about the state of the electronic device (100) and / or the state of the surroundings of the electronic device (100), acquired via the sensor (170), into a format suitable for the component of the processor (110).

[0038] The memory (120) may include one or more storage media (or one or more storage devices). For example, the memory (120) may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory (e.g., non-volatile memory (122)) such as a hard drive, flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), semi-permanent memory (e.g., volatile memory (121)) such as random access memory (RAM), any other suitable type of storage (or storage assembly), or any combination thereof. The memory (120) may include cache memory, which is one or more different types of memory used to temporarily store data for a function or feature of the electronic device (100). As a non-limiting example, the cache memory may be included within the processor (110). The memory (120) may be fixedly embedded within the electronic device (100) or incorporated into one or more suitable types of components (e.g., a subscriber identity module (SIM) card and / or a secure digital (SD) card) that may be repeatedly inserted into and removed from the electronic device (100).

[0039] For example, the memory (120) may store one or more software applications, such as an operating system (or system) software application, a firmware software application, a driver software application, a plug-in (e.g., add-in, add-on, and / or applet) software application, and / or any other suitable software applications. For example, the one or more software applications may include instructions executable by the processor (110). For example, the memory (120) may store instructions callable by an application programming interface (API). For example, the memory (120) may store instructions within a library.

[0040] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a neighbor awareness network (NAN) cluster according to various embodiments of the present invention.

[0041] For example, FIG. 2 may illustrate an example configuration of a neighbor awareness networking (NAN) cluster (200) for a proximity network according to various embodiments. In the following description, the cluster (200) may refer to a set of electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240) that configure a proximity network so that each electronic device (or NAN device) (210, 220, 230, or 240) (e.g., the electronic device (100) of FIG. 1) can transmit and receive data with each other. For example, the cluster (200) may be referred to as a NAN cluster according to a NAN specification (or standard).

[0042] Referring to FIG. 2, a cluster (200) may be composed of a plurality of electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240). The electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240) included in the cluster (200) may transmit and receive a beacon (or discovery beacon) and / or a service discovery frame (SDF) (hereinafter, referred to as 'SDF') within a synchronized time duration (or communication period) (e.g., a discovery window (DW)).

[0043] Electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240) within a cluster (200) may have their time clocks synchronized with each other. For example, electronic devices (210, 220, 230, 240) may be synchronized to the time clock of one electronic device (e.g., electronic device (210)) and may exchange beacons and SDFs with each other within the same discovery window.

[0044] According to one embodiment, an electronic device supporting a low-power short-range communication technology based on NAN can broadcast a search signal (e.g., a beacon) for discovering other electronic devices every preset first period (e.g., about 100 msec), and perform scanning every preset second period (e.g., about 10 msec) to receive search signals broadcast from other electronic devices.

[0045] An electronic device (210, 220, 230, 240) can detect at least one other electronic device located around the electronic device based on a search signal received through scanning, and perform NAN cluster synchronization with the detected at least one other electronic device. The NAN cluster synchronization can include an operation of receiving time clock information of an electronic device representing a NAN cluster so that the electronic devices included in the NAN cluster transmit and / or receive data through the same channel and / or during the same time.

[0046] For example, as illustrated in FIG. 2, each of a plurality of electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240) can form a cluster (200) that operates according to a synchronized time clock by transmitting a beacon and receiving a beacon from other electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240), and the electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240) within the cluster (200) can perform NAN cluster synchronization.

[0047] NAN cluster synchronization can be performed based on the time and channel of the electronic device with the highest master preference within the cluster (200). For example, electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240) within the cluster (200) formed through discovery can exchange signals regarding master preference information indicating a preference for operating as an anchor master, and the electronic device with the highest master preference can be determined as the anchor master (or master electronic device) through the exchanged signals.

[0048] An anchor master may refer to an electronic device that serves as a reference for time and channel synchronization of electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240) within a cluster (200). The anchor master may be changed according to the master preference of the electronic devices. Each of the time and channel synchronized electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240) may transmit a beacon and an SDF within a discovery window (or search section) that repeats according to a preset cycle, and may receive beacons and SDFs from other electronic devices within the cluster (200). In one embodiment, the beacon may be periodically transmitted and received for each discovery window to continuously maintain time and channel synchronization of the electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240) within the cluster (200). The SDF may be transmitted and received during discovery windows as needed to provide services to discovered electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240). In one embodiment, an electronic device acting as an anchor master among the time and channel synchronized electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240) may transmit a beacon to detect a new electronic device during the interval between discovery windows.

[0049] Each of the electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240) within the cluster (200) can operate in an active state only during the discovery window and in a low-power state (e.g., sleep state) during the remaining periods outside the discovery window, thereby reducing current consumption.

[0050] For example, a discovery window is a period of time (e.g., milliseconds) during which an electronic device is active (or awake) and consumes a lot of current, whereas outside of the discovery window, the electronic device remains in a sleep state, allowing for low-power discovery.

[0051] Electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240) within a cluster (200) can be simultaneously activated at the start of a synchronized discovery window (e.g., DW start) and simultaneously transitioned to a sleep state at the end of the discovery window (e.g., DW end).

[0052] Electronic devices (210, 220, 230, or 240) included in a cluster (200) can perform discovery, synchronization, and data exchange operations using the protocol illustrated in FIG. 3 described below.

[0053] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a protocol for transmitting signals of electronic devices included in a NAN cluster according to various embodiments of the present invention.

[0054] For example, FIG. 3 may illustrate an exemplary diagram of a discovery window according to various embodiments. FIG. 3 illustrates, by way of example, electronic devices included in a cluster transmitting signals through a specific channel (e.g., channel 6 (Ch6)) based on the NAN standard.

[0055] Referring to FIG. 3, electronic devices included in a cluster can transmit a synchronization beacon (310) and an SDF (320) in a synchronized discovery window (DW) (325). A discovery beacon (330) can be transmitted by at least one electronic device in a period (340) other than the discovery window (325) (e.g., an interval between discovery windows). According to one embodiment, the electronic devices can transmit the synchronization beacon (310) and the SDF (320) based on contention. For example, the synchronization beacon (310) and the SDF (320) can be transmitted based on contention between each electronic device included in the cluster.

[0056] The discovery window (325) may be a period during which the electronic devices are activated from a sleep state in power saving mode to a wake-up state for data exchange between the respective electronic devices. For example, the discovery window (325) may be divided into time units (TUs, time units) in milliseconds. According to one embodiment, the discovery window (325) for transmitting and receiving the synchronization beacon (310) and the SDF (320) may occupy 16 time units (TUs) (16 TUs) and may have a cycle (or interval) that repeats with 512 time units (512 TUs).

[0057] A discovery beacon (330) may represent a signal transmitted to enable other electronic devices that have not joined the cluster to discover the cluster. For example, the discovery beacon (330) is a signal to announce the existence of a cluster, and electronic devices that have not joined the cluster can perform a passive scan to discover and join the cluster by receiving the discovery beacon (330).

[0058] The discovery beacon (330) may include information necessary for synchronization with the cluster. For example, the discovery beacon (330) may include at least one of a frame control (FC) field indicating a function of the signal (e.g., a beacon), a broadcast address, a media access control (MAC) address of a transmitting electronic device, a cluster identifier (ID), a sequence control field, a time stamp for a beacon frame, a beacon interval indicating a transmission interval of the discovery beacon (330), or capability information for an electronic device transmitting the discovery beacon (330).

[0059] A discovery beacon (330) may include at least one proximity network (or cluster) related information element. In one embodiment, the proximity network related information may be referred to as attribute information.

[0060] A synchronization beacon (310) may represent a signal for maintaining synchronization between synchronized electronic devices within a cluster. The synchronization beacon (310) may be transmitted by a synchronization device among electronic devices within the cluster. For example, the synchronization device may include an anchor master electronic device, a master electronic device, or a non-master synchronization device defined in the NAN standard.

[0061] The synchronization beacon (310) may include information necessary for electronic devices to synchronize within a cluster. For example, the synchronization beacon (310) may include at least one of an FC field indicating the function of the signal (e.g., a beacon), a broadcast address, a MAC address of the transmitting electronic device, a cluster identifier, a sequence control field, a timestamp for the beacon frame, a beacon interval indicating the interval between the start points of the discovery window (325), or capability information for the transmitting electronic device. According to one embodiment, the synchronization beacon (310) may include at least one proximity network (or cluster) related information element. For example, the proximity network related information may include contents for a service provided through the proximity network.

[0062] SDF (320) may represent a signal for exchanging data over a proximity network. According to one embodiment, SDF (320) represents a vendor-specific public action frame and may include various fields. For example, SDF (320) may include a category or action field and may include at least one piece of proximity network-related information.

[0063] The synchronization beacon (310), the SDF (320), and the discovery beacon (330) may include proximity network related information. In one embodiment, the proximity network related information may include an identifier indicating a type of information, a length of the information, and a body field that is corresponding information. According to one embodiment, the corresponding information may include at least one of master indication information, cluster information, service identifier list information, service descriptor information, connection capability information, wireless LAN infrastructure information, peer to peer (P2P) operation information, independent basic service set (IBSS) information, mesh information, additional proximity network service discovery information, further availability map information, country code information, ranging information, cluster discovery information, or vendor specific information.

[0064] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of data transmission and reception within a NAN cluster according to various embodiments of the present invention.

[0065] For example, FIG. 4 illustrates an example in which a first electronic device (410), a second electronic device (420), and a third electronic device (430) form a cluster through wireless short-range communication technology, and each of the electronic devices (410, 420, or 430) can transmit and receive beacons and / or SDFs to each other. According to one embodiment, FIG. 4 illustrates an example in which, among the electronic devices (410, 420, or 430) forming the cluster, the first electronic device (410) serves as a master electronic device.

[0066] Referring to FIG. 4, the first electronic device (410) can transmit a beacon and an SDF within a discovery window (450). The first electronic device (410) can broadcast a beacon and an SDF for each discovery window (450) that is repeated at each preset interval (e.g., interval (460)).

[0067] The second electronic device (420) and the third electronic device (430) can receive the beacon and SDF transmitted by the first electronic device (410). According to one embodiment, each of the second electronic device (420) and the third electronic device (430) can receive the beacon and SDF broadcast from the first electronic device (410) for each discovery window (450).

[0068] A beacon transmitted within a discovery window (450) may include a synchronization beacon and may include information for maintaining synchronization between electronic devices (410, 420, or 430). For example, a second electronic device (420) and / or a third electronic device (430) may perform NAN cluster synchronization based on time clock information of the first electronic device (410) included in a beacon transmitted by a first electronic device (410) operating as a master. The second electronic device (420) and / or the third electronic device (430) may be synchronized so that the discovery window (450) may be activated at the same time.

[0069] In periods other than the discovery window (450) (e.g., interval (460)), the electronic devices (410, 420, or 430) may remain in a sleep state to reduce current consumption. For example, the electronic devices (410, 420, or 430) may operate in a wake state only during the discovery window (450) based on a synchronized time clock to reduce current consumption.

[0070] FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a first electronic device and a second electronic device setting an NDP according to one embodiment.

[0071] Referring to FIG. 5, a first electronic device (501) (e.g., the electronic device (100) of FIG. 1, the first electronic device (410) of FIG. 4) and a second electronic device (502) (e.g., the electronic device (100) of FIG. 1, the second electronic device (420) of FIG. 4) can perform communication through a NDP (NAN data path) supported by NAN (neighbor awareness networking).

[0072] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may perform a series of operations for setting up an NDP in order to communicate via the NDP. The series of operations performed by the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) to set up the NDP may be divided into three stages. According to one example, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may perform a discovery stage (510) in which at least one message is exchanged to discover (or search) each other, an authentication stage (520) in which information related to authentication for setting up an NDP is exchanged after the discovery stage (510) and authentication is performed based on the information related to authentication, and / or a communication stage (530) in which the NDP is set up after the authentication stage (520) and communication is performed via the NDP.

[0073] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may transmit and / or receive at least one message while performing the discovery step (510).

[0074] According to one example, the first electronic device (501) may transmit a search request message to the second electronic device (502) in operation 511. The search request message may include information required for the first electronic device (501) to perform NAN communication. According to one example, the search request message may include identification information of the first electronic device (501). The identification information of the first electronic device (501) may refer to various information that can distinguish the first electronic device (501) from other electronic devices. According to one example, the search request message may include information related to NAN performed by the first electronic device (501). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the first electronic device (501) can support among various functions that the first electronic device (501) supports in NAN communication. Additionally, the search request message may include preferred frequency band and channel information of the NDP to which the first electronic device (501) is to be set.

[0075] As an example, the search request message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the first electronic device (501) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in a connection to obtain information related to authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (520).

[0076] The search request message may refer to a NAN SDF publish message, and the first electronic device (501) may transmit (or broadcast) the search request message at a specified period and / or a specified number of times until the second electronic device (502) is discovered.

[0077] The second electronic device (502) may receive a search request message from the first electronic device (501) and, based on various pieces of information included in the search request message, determine whether to establish a connection with (or subscribe to) the first electronic device (501). In operation 512, the second electronic device (502) may transmit a search response message to the first electronic device (501).

[0078] The second electronic device (502) may transmit a search response message to the first electronic device (501) based on a decision to establish a connection with the first electronic device (501).

[0079] The search response message may include information required for the second electronic device (502) to perform NAN communication. According to one example, the search response message may include identification information of the second electronic device (502). The identification information of the second electronic device (502) may refer to various information that can distinguish the second electronic device (502) from other electronic devices. According to one example, the search response message may include information related to NAN performed by the second electronic device (502). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the second electronic device (502) can support among various functions that the second electronic device (502) supports in NAN communication.

[0080] In one example, the search response message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the second electronic device (502) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in the connection to obtain information related to the authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (520).

[0081] The first electronic device (501) can discover the second electronic device (502) upon receiving a search response message transmitted by the second electronic device (502). The first electronic device (501) can output information indicating various discovered electronic devices including the second electronic device (502) and perform a series of operations for setting up an NDP with an electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502)) selected by the user based on the information. The information indicating various discovered electronic devices including the second electronic device (502) can be provided to the user in various ways. In one example, the information indicating various discovered electronic devices including the second electronic device (502) can be displayed on the display in the form of a list. Alternatively, the first electronic device (501) can also perform a series of operations for setting up an NDP with the second electronic device (502) without outputting information indicating various discovered electronic devices including the second electronic device (502).

[0082] The first electronic device (501) may, in operation 521, generate and / or divide data related to authentication. The data related to authentication may refer to various data that may be used to perform authentication between the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502). In one example, the data related to authentication may include a certificate. In one example, the data related to authentication may include various data in addition to the certificate.

[0083] Data related to authentication may be included in a NAN SDF follow-up message defined in the NAN standard. The NAN SDF follow-up message may include service-specific information, and the first electronic device (501) may configure (or generate, set) the NAN SDF follow-up message to include data related to authentication in the service-specific information included in the NAN SDF follow-up message.

[0084] Service-specific information may be included in at least one of a service descriptor attribute (SDA) field that may include data of a specified size (e.g., 255 bytes) or less, or a service discovery extension attribute (SDEA) field that may include data exceeding a specified size (or greater than or equal to a specified size). Considering compatibility between various electronic devices supporting NAN communication and the first electronic device (501), the first electronic device (501) may segment information related to authentication when the information related to authentication exceeds (or is greater than) a specified size. When information related to authentication is segmented, each piece of segmented data may be smaller than or equal to a specified size. The first electronic device (501) may segment information related to authentication such that the size of each piece of segmented data is smaller than or equal to a specified size. The segmented data may be included in the service-specific information of the SDA field.

[0085] The first electronic device (501) can transmit a NAN SDF follow-up message including each of the segmented data to the second electronic device (502) in operations 522-a and 522-b.

[0086] Although FIG. 5 illustrates that the NAN SDF follow-up message is transmitted twice, the number of times the NAN SDF follow-up message is transmitted may vary depending on the number of segmented data. For example, if data related to authentication is segmented into 10 pieces, the first electronic device (501) may transmit 10 NAN SDF follow-up messages, each including 10 segmented pieces of data, to the second electronic device (502).

[0087] The second electronic device (502) can receive a plurality of NAN SDF follow-up messages from the first electronic device (501) and obtain data related to authentication based on segmented data included in the plurality of NAN SDF follow-up messages.

[0088] The second electronic device (502) may also generate and / or segment data related to authentication during the authentication step (520). The second electronic device (502) may generate and / or segment data related to authentication at operation 523. Although operation 523 is illustrated in FIG. 5 as being performed later than operations 521, 522-a, and 522-b, the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, the second electronic device (502) may perform operation 523 while operation 521 is being performed.

[0089] Data related to authentication may refer to various data that can be used to perform authentication between the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502). In one example, the data related to authentication may include a certificate used for authentication. In another example, the data related to authentication may include various data in addition to the certificate.

[0090] Data related to authentication may be included in a NAN SDF follow-up message defined in the NAN standard. The NAN SDF follow-up message may include service-specific information, and the second electronic device (502) may configure (or generate, set) the NAN SDF follow-up message to include data related to authentication in the service-specific information included in the NAN SDF follow-up message.

[0091] Service-specific information may be included in at least one of a service descriptor attribute (SDA) field that may include data of a specified size (e.g., 255 bytes) or less, or a service discovery extension attribute (SDEA) field that may include data exceeding a specified size. Considering compatibility between various electronic devices supporting NAN communication and the second electronic device (502), the first electronic device (501) may segment the authentication-related information if the authentication-related information exceeds (or is greater than) a specified size. When the authentication-related information is segmented, each of the segmented data may be smaller than or equal to the specified size. The second electronic device (502) may segment the authentication-related information such that the size of each of the segmented data is smaller than or equal to the specified size. The segmented data may be included in the service-specific information of the SDA field.

[0092] The second electronic device (502) can transmit a NAN SDF follow-up message including each of the segmented data to the first electronic device (501) in operations 524-a and 524-b.

[0093] Although FIG. 5 illustrates that the NAN SDF follow-up message is transmitted twice, the number of times the NAN SDF follow-up message is transmitted may vary depending on the number of segmented data. For example, if data related to authentication is segmented into five pieces, the second electronic device (502) may transmit five NAN SDF follow-up messages, each containing one of the five segmented pieces of data, to the first electronic device (501).

[0094] The first electronic device (501) can receive a plurality of NAN SDF follow-up messages from the second electronic device (502) and obtain data related to authentication based on segmented data included in the plurality of NAN SDF follow-up messages.

[0095] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can obtain data related to authentication through the authentication step (520) described above, and can set an NDP based on the data related to authentication in the communication step (530).

[0096] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can exchange certificates and then create an encryption channel based on the certificate exchange. The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can exchange keys required to create an NDP through the encryption channel and set the NDP based on the keys.

[0097] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can set up an NDP using data related to authentication in operation 531.

[0098] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can perform verification based on information related to authentication exchanged with each other, and if verification is successful, perform a series of operations to set an NDP. The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can set an NDP by referring to frequency band and / or channel information included in a search request message and / or a search response message.

[0099] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can communicate via NDP in operation 532.

[0100] Referring to the NDP setup process illustrated in FIG. 5, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may exchange authentication-related data in the authentication step (520). However, the authentication-related data may be larger than a specified size (255 bytes) and may require segmentation to be included in the SDA field. For stability and / or compatibility, the first electronic device (501) may transmit an SDF follow-up message that includes the segmented data in the SDA field without using the SDEA field.

[0101] However, if the maximum size of data that the second electronic device (502) can receive in the authentication step (520) exceeds a specified size, the second electronic device (502) can receive an SDF follow-up message in which the segmented data is included in an SDEA field. If the segmented data can be included in the SDEA field, the first electronic device (501) can segment the data related to authentication such that the segmented data has a size larger than the specified size. If the data related to authentication is segmented such that the segmented data has a size larger than the specified size, the number of SDF follow-up messages can be reduced. If the number of SDF follow-up messages is reduced, the first electronic device (501) can improve the transmission speed of the SDF follow-up messages by transmitting the SDF follow-up messages during a smaller discovery window period.

[0102] However, since the first electronic device (510) cannot confirm the maximum size of data that the second electronic device (502) can receive in the authentication step (520), it can transmit an SDF follow-up message that includes segmented data in the SDA field without using the SDEA field.

[0103] When data related to authentication is segmented such that the segmented data has a size less than or equal to a specified size, the number of SDF follow-up messages may increase. When the number of SDF follow-up messages increases, the first electronic device (501) may transmit SDF follow-up messages during a larger discovery window period, thereby reducing the transmission speed of the SDF follow-up messages. If some of the SDF follow-up messages fail to be transmitted, the transmission of data related to authentication may fail, and the transmission of a larger number of SDF follow-up messages may increase the possibility of transmission failure.

[0104] Hereinafter, examples are described of exchanging information related to the size of data that can be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message) exchanged during the process of performing an authentication operation before the authentication step (520) between a first electronic device (501) and a second electronic device (502), and dividing data related to authentication according to a size determined based on the information related to the size of the data, thereby enabling transmission of a smaller number of SDF follow-up messages.

[0105] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a first electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0106] A first electronic device (e.g., the first electronic device (501) of FIG. 5) may include a first communication circuit (610) (e.g., the communication circuit (160) of FIG. 1), a processor (620) (e.g., the processor (110) of FIG. 1), and / or a memory (630) (e.g., the memory (120) of FIG. 1).

[0107] The first communication circuit (610) may be a communication circuit that supports short-range wireless communication. The first communication circuit (610) may support various short-range wireless communication functions (e.g., STA (station), AP (access point), Wi-Fi direct, and / or NAN (neighbor awareness networking)). According to one example, the first communication circuit (610) is a communication circuit that supports NAN, and may receive data transmitted by a second electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502) of FIG. 5) through an NDP set (or, generated, established) through the NAN, and may transmit the data to the second electronic device (502) through the NDP.

[0108] The first communication circuit (610) may include at least one circuitry used for modulating and / or demodulating a signal within the first electronic device (501). For example, the first communication circuit (610) may modulate a baseband signal into a radio frequency (RF) band signal to be output through an antenna (not shown), or may demodulate an RF band signal received through an antenna into a baseband signal and transmit the baseband signal to the processor (620).

[0109] The first communication circuit (610) can transmit various data to the second electronic device (502) or receive data from the second electronic device (502) through a frequency band (e.g., 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and / or 6 GHz) used by electronic devices of the NAN cluster (e.g., the NAN cluster (200) of FIG. 2).

[0110] The processor (620) may perform an operation of receiving data transmitted by an application processor (e.g., processor (120) of FIG. 1) and generating a packet for transmitting the received data to an external electronic device (220). The processor (620) may include at least one circuitry for performing a series of operations, and the processor (620) may include at least one processor including at least one circuitry. The operations of the processor (620) described below may be individually or collectively performed by at least one of the at least one processor included in the processor (620). According to one example, the processor (620) may refer to a processing circuit included in the first communication circuit (610). When the processor (620) is implemented within the first communication circuit (610), the processor (620) may be referred to as a core.

[0111] The memory (630) can store at least one computer program including instructions that can be executed by the processor (620). The operations of the processor (620) described below can be performed by executing instructions included in the computer program stored on the memory (630).

[0112] According to one embodiment, the processor (620) may perform channel coding based on data transmitted by an application processor (e.g., application processor (120) of FIG. 1), thereby generating a packet, checking whether at least a portion of data transmitted by an external electronic device (220) has an error, or performing an operation to recover from an error (e.g., hybrid auto repeat request (HARQ)) if an error occurs.

[0113] The processor (620) may perform synchronization with a NAN cluster based on NAN cluster information included in a signal broadcast by an external electronic device included in a NAN (neighbor awareness networking) cluster (or network) (220). Alternatively, the processor (620) may receive NAN cluster information through a non-NAN-based communication method (e.g., short-range wireless communication including Bluetooth or Wi-Fi). For example, the processor (620) may transmit a probe request signal to find an external electronic device (220) to be connected via Wi-Fi, and perform NAN cluster synchronization based on NAN cluster information included in a probe response message transmitted by the external electronic device in response to the probe request signal.

[0114] NAN cluster synchronization may include an operation of receiving time clock information of an electronic device representing a NAN cluster (or a master device of the NAN cluster) (e.g., the first electronic device (410) of FIG. 4) so ​​that electronic devices included in the NAN cluster transmit and / or receive data through the same channel and / or during the same time. For example, the processor (620) may receive a beacon broadcast by an external electronic device and perform NAN cluster synchronization based on the time clock information of the external electronic device included in the beacon.

[0115] After the NAN cluster synchronization is completed, the processor (620) can activate the first communication circuit (610) for each designated section (e.g., the size of a discovery window having an interval having a first value) and control the first communication circuit (610) to receive data transmitted by an external electronic device included in the NAN cluster (200) for each designated section or to transmit data to the external electronic device.

[0116] The processor (620) may perform a series of operations to set up (or establish, configure, create) an NDP (NAN data path) for communicating with a second electronic device (502) included in a NAN cluster. The processor (620) may perform three major steps of operations to set up an NDP between the second electronic device (502) and the first electronic device (501). As described in FIG. 5, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may perform a discovery step (510) in which they exchange at least one message to discover (or search) each other, an authentication step (520) in which they exchange information related to authentication for setting up an NDP after the discovery step (510) and perform authentication based on the information related to authentication, and / or a communication step (530) in which they set up an NDP after the authentication step (520) and perform communication through the NDP.

[0117] The processor (620) may control the first communication circuit (610) to transmit (or broadcast) to the second electronic device (502) a first message including first information related to the size of data (e.g., data that may be included in an SDA or SDEA field of a NAN SDF follow-up message) that may be included in a message (e.g., a NAN SDF follow-up message of FIG. 5) exchanged in a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., the authentication step (520) of FIG. 5).

[0118] Transmission of the first message may be performed in the discovery step (510). The first message is a message for searching for the second electronic device (502) and may be substantially identical or similar to the search request message of FIG. 5. The first message may be a NAN SDF Publish message defined in NAN.

[0119] According to one example, the first information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the first information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives from the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the first information may refer to the maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b, 524-a, 524-b)) transmitted or received by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication.

[0120] The first communication circuit (610) may be controlled to transmit (or broadcast) to the second electronic device (502) a first message including first information related to the size of data (e.g., data that may be included in the SDA or SDEA field of the NAN SDF follow-up message) that may be included in a message (e.g., the NAN SDF follow-up message of FIG. 5) exchanged in a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., the authentication step (520) of FIG. 5).

[0121] The first message may include information required for the first electronic device (501) to perform NAN communication. In one example, the first message may include identification information of the first electronic device (501). The identification information of the first electronic device (501) may refer to various information that can distinguish the first electronic device (501) from other electronic devices. In one example, the first message may include information related to NAN performed by the first electronic device (501). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the first electronic device (501) can support among various functions that the first electronic device (501) supports in NAN communication. The first message may include preferred frequency band and channel information of an NDP to which the first electronic device (501) is to be set.

[0122] As an example, the first message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the first electronic device (501) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in a connection to obtain information related to authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (520).

[0123] The processor (620) can search for (or discover, or find) an external electronic device (e.g., a second electronic device (502)) to set up an NDP by transmitting a first message. After receiving the first message, the second electronic device (502) can determine whether to connect with the first electronic device (501) via an NDP based on various information included in the first message. The second electronic device (502) can transmit a second message based on the decision to connect with the first electronic device (501) via an NDP. The processor (620) can control the first communication circuit (610) to repeatedly transmit (or broadcast) the first message until the second message is received.

[0124] The second message may refer to a response message to the first message. The second message may include second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message) exchanged during a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., authentication step (520)).

[0125] According to one example, the second information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the second information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the second information may refer to the maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b, 524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (501) transmits or receives during the process of performing authentication to the first electronic device (501).

[0126] In one example, the second message may be substantially identical or similar to the search response message of FIG. 5. The second message may be a response message to a NAN SDF Publish message defined in NAN, and may be a NAN SDF follow-up message. In one embodiment, the second message may be an SDF subscribe message. The second electronic device (502) may transmit second information related to the size of the data to the first electronic device (501) by transmitting the second message to the first electronic device (501) without receiving the first message (e.g., the SDF publish message).

[0127] The second message may include information required for the second electronic device (502) to perform NAN communication. In one example, the second message may include identification information of the second electronic device (502). The identification information of the second electronic device (502) may refer to various information that can distinguish the second electronic device (502) from other electronic devices. In one example, the second message may include information related to NAN performed by the second electronic device (502). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the second electronic device (502) can support among various functions that the second electronic device (502) supports in NAN communication.

[0128] In one example, the second message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the second electronic device (502) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in the connection to obtain information related to the authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (520).

[0129] The processor (620) may, while discovering the second electronic device (502), receive a second message from the second electronic device (502) and verify second information included in the second message.

[0130] The processor (620) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication based on the first information and the second information. According to one example, the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication may refer to data that may be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. According to one example, data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from a first electronic device (501) to a second electronic device (502) in the process of performing authentication may refer to at least a part of data related to authentication, as data that may be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from a first electronic device (501) to a second electronic device (502) in the process of performing authentication.

[0131] The processor (620) can, with reference to the first information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. The processor (620) can, with reference to the second information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. The processor (620) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, based on the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.According to one example, the processor (620) may determine a smaller value among the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, as the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication.

[0132] The processor (620) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, and may segment data related to authentication. The processor (620) may segment data related to authentication such that each of the segmented data generated by segmenting the data related to authentication is equal to or smaller than the determined size.

[0133] The processor (620) may control the first communication circuit (610) to transmit a plurality of third messages (e.g., SDF follow-up messages (522-a, 522-b)) each including the segmented data to the second electronic device (502).

[0134] In one example, if the segmented data is less than (or less than) a specified size, the segmented data may be included in the SDA field of a third message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)). If the segmented data exceeds (or is greater than) a specified size, the segmented data may be included in the SDEA field of a third message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)).

[0135] According to one example, if the second electronic device (502) is capable of receiving data having a size greater than or equal to a specified size (255 bytes) during the authentication step, and the first electronic device (501) is capable of transmitting data having a size exceeding the specified size during the authentication step, the determined value may be greater than the specified size. The specified size may be the same as or substantially similar to the maximum size of data that can be included in the SDA field. That is, even if the first electronic device (501) divides data related to authentication so that the divided data exceeds the specified size and transmits the divided data, the second electronic device (502) can normally receive the divided data. The number of times (or the time required for transmission) of a message including divided data exceeding the specified size may be smaller than the number of times (or the time required for transmission) of a message including divided data having a size less than or equal to the specified size. Accordingly, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can reduce the time required for authentication by reducing the time required for transmitting and / or receiving data related to authentication, and can improve the transmission rate of data related to authentication.

[0136] In one example, the processor (620) may not receive the second message from the second electronic device (502). Alternatively, the processor (620) may receive a second message from the second electronic device (502) that does not include the second information. If the processor (620) fails to verify the second information or fails to receive the second message, the processor (620) may control the first communication circuit (610) to segment the authentication-related data such that the segmented data has a size less than a specified size, and to transmit at least one fourth message including the segmented data to the second electronic device (502). The size of the segmented data included in the fourth message may be smaller than the size of the segmented data included in the third message. Accordingly, the number of transmissions of the fourth message (or the time required to transmit the fourth message) may be greater than the number of transmissions of the third message (or the time required to transmit the third message).

[0137] The processor (620) may transmit information related to authentication to the second electronic device (502) by transmitting a plurality of third messages including at least a portion (or segmented data) of information related to authentication. The processor (620) may receive information related to authentication generated by the second electronic device (502) during the authentication process. The processor (620) may perform authentication with the second electronic device (502) based on the information related to authentication generated by the first electronic device (501) and / or the information related to authentication generated by the second electronic device (502), and may set an NDP based on the authentication result. In one example, if authentication with the second electronic device (502) is successful, the processor (620) may set an NDP with the second electronic device (502). The processor (620) can control the first communication circuit (610) to set an NDP and perform communication with the second electronic device (502) through the NDP by referring to the frequency band and / or channel information included in the first message and / or the second message.

[0138] Although the examples described above describe transmitting a first message containing first information via NAN communication and / or receiving a second message containing second information via NAN communication, the transmission / reception of the first message and the second message may be performed via other short-range wireless communication.

[0139] The first electronic device (501) may further include a second communication circuit (not shown) that supports short-range wireless communication other than NAN communication. The second communication circuit (not shown) may be a communication circuit that supports wireless communication other than NAN communication. According to one example, the second communication circuit (not shown) may support various wireless communications including Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi, and / or cellular communication, which are wireless communications other than NAN communication.

[0140] The processor (620) may control the second communication circuit to transmit (or broadcast) the first message via another short-range wireless communication during the process of discovering the second electronic device (502). Alternatively, the processor (620) may receive the second message transmitted (or broadcast) via another short-range wireless communication. Alternatively, the processor (620) may transmit (or broadcast) the first message via another short-range wireless communication before performing the operation of discovering the second electronic device (502).

[0141] FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a second electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0142] A second electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502) of FIG. 5) may include a first communication circuit (710) (e.g., the communication circuit (160) of FIG. 1), a processor (720) (e.g., the processor (110) of FIG. 1), and / or a memory (730) (e.g., the memory (120) of FIG. 1).

[0143] The first communication circuit (710) may be a communication circuit that supports short-range wireless communication. The first communication circuit (710) may support various short-range wireless communication functions (e.g., STA (station), AP (access point), Wi-Fi direct, and / or NAN (neighbor awareness networking)). According to one example, the first communication circuit (710) is a communication circuit that supports NAN, and may receive data transmitted by a first electronic device (e.g., the first electronic device (501) of FIG. 5) through an NDP set (or, generated, established) through the NAN, and may transmit the data to the first electronic device (501) through the NDP.

[0144] The first communication circuit (710) may include at least one circuitry used for modulating and / or demodulating a signal within the second electronic device (502). For example, the first communication circuit (710) may modulate a baseband signal into a radio frequency (RF) band signal to be output through an antenna (not shown), or may demodulate an RF band signal received through an antenna into a baseband signal and transmit the baseband signal to the processor (720).

[0145] The first communication circuit (710) can transmit various data to the second electronic device (502) or receive data from the second electronic device (502) through a frequency band (e.g., 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and / or 6 GHz) used by electronic devices of the NAN cluster (e.g., the NAN cluster (200) of FIG. 2).

[0146] The processor (720) may perform an operation of receiving data transmitted by an application processor (e.g., processor (120) of FIG. 1) and generating a packet for transmitting the received data to an external electronic device (220). The processor (720) may include at least one circuitry for performing a series of operations, and the processor (720) may include at least one processor including at least one circuitry. The operations of the processor (720) described below may be individually or collectively performed by at least one of the at least one processor included in the processor (720). According to one example, the processor (720) may refer to a processing circuit included in the first communication circuit (710). When the processor (720) is implemented within the first communication circuit (710), the processor (720) may be referred to as a core.

[0147] The memory (730) can store at least one computer program including instructions that can be executed by the processor (720). The operations of the processor (720) described below can be performed by executing instructions included in the computer program stored on the memory (730).

[0148] According to one embodiment, the processor (720) may perform channel coding based on data transmitted by an application processor (e.g., application processor (120) of FIG. 1), thereby generating a packet, checking whether at least a portion of data transmitted by an external electronic device (220) has an error, or performing an operation to recover from an error (e.g., hybrid auto repeat request (HARQ)) if an error occurs.

[0149] The processor (720) may perform synchronization with a NAN cluster based on NAN cluster information included in a signal broadcast by an external electronic device included in a NAN (neighbor awareness networking) cluster (or network) (220). Alternatively, the processor (720) may receive NAN cluster information through a non-NAN-based communication method (e.g., short-range wireless communication including Bluetooth or Wi-Fi). For example, the processor (720) may transmit a probe request signal to find an external electronic device (220) to be connected via Wi-Fi, and perform NAN cluster synchronization based on NAN cluster information included in a probe response message transmitted by the external electronic device in response to the probe request signal.

[0150] NAN cluster synchronization may include an operation of receiving time clock information of an electronic device representing a NAN cluster (or a master device of the NAN cluster) (e.g., the first electronic device (410) of FIG. 4) so ​​that electronic devices included in the NAN cluster transmit and / or receive data through the same channel and / or during the same time. For example, the processor (720) may receive a beacon broadcast by an external electronic device and perform NAN cluster synchronization based on the time clock information of the external electronic device included in the beacon.

[0151] After the NAN cluster synchronization is completed, the processor (720) can activate the first communication circuit (710) for each designated section (e.g., the size of a discovery window having an interval having a first value) and control the first communication circuit (710) to receive data transmitted by an external electronic device included in the NAN cluster (200) for each designated section or to transmit data to the external electronic device.

[0152] The processor (720) may perform a series of operations to set up (or establish, configure, create) an NDP (NAN data path) for communicating with the first electronic device (501) included in the NAN cluster. The processor (720) may perform three major steps of operations to set up the NDP between the second electronic device (502) and the first electronic device (501). As described in FIG. 5, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may perform a discovery step (510) in which they exchange at least one message to discover (or search) each other, an authentication step (520) in which they exchange information related to authentication for setting up the NDP after the discovery step (510) and perform authentication based on the information related to authentication, and / or a communication step (530) in which they set up the NDP after the authentication step (520) and perform communication through the NDP.

[0153] The processor (720) may receive a first message including first information related to the size of data (e.g., data that may be included in an SDA or SDEA field of a NAN SDF follow-up message) that may be included in a message (e.g., a NAN SDF follow-up message of FIG. 5) exchanged in a process in which a first electronic device (501) and a second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., an authentication step (520) of FIG. 5).

[0154] Reception of the first message may be performed in the discovery step (510). The first message is a message for searching for the second electronic device (502) and may be substantially identical to or similar to the search request message of FIG. 5.

[0155] According to one example, the first information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the first information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives from the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the first information may refer to the maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b, 524-a, 524-b)) transmitted or received by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication.

[0156] The processor (720) may receive a first message including first information related to the size of data (e.g., data that may be included in an SDA or SDEA field of a NAN SDF follow-up message) that may be included in a message (e.g., a NAN SDF follow-up message of FIG. 5) exchanged in a process in which a first electronic device (501) and a second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., an authentication step (520) of FIG. 5).

[0157] The first message may include information required for the first electronic device (501) to perform NAN communication. In one example, the first message may include identification information of the first electronic device (501). The identification information of the first electronic device (501) may refer to various information that can distinguish the first electronic device (501) from other electronic devices. In one example, the first message may include information related to NAN performed by the first electronic device (501). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the first electronic device (501) can support among various functions that the first electronic device (501) supports in NAN communication. The first message may include preferred frequency band and channel information of an NDP to which the first electronic device (501) is to be set.

[0158] As an example, the first message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the first electronic device (501) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in a connection to obtain information related to authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (520).

[0159] After receiving the first message, the processor (720) can determine whether to connect to the first electronic device (501) via NDP based on various information included in the first message.

[0160] The processor (720) may control the first communication circuit (710) to transmit a second message based on a decision to connect with the first electronic device (501) via NDP. The second message may refer to a response message to the first message. The second message may include second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message) exchanged during a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., the authentication step (520)).

[0161] According to one example, the second information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the second information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the second information may refer to the maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b, 524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (501) transmits or receives during the process of performing authentication to the first electronic device (501).

[0162] As an example, the second message may be substantially identical or similar to the search response message of FIG. 5.

[0163] The second message may include information required for the second electronic device (502) to perform NAN communication. In one example, the second message may include identification information of the second electronic device (502). The identification information of the second electronic device (502) may refer to various information that can distinguish the second electronic device (502) from other electronic devices. In one example, the second message may include information related to NAN performed by the second electronic device (502). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the second electronic device (502) can support among various functions that the second electronic device (502) supports in NAN communication.

[0164] In one example, the second message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the second electronic device (502) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in the connection to obtain information related to the authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (520).

[0165] The processor (720) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, based on the first information and the second information, before transmitting the second message, during transmitting the second message, and / or after transmitting the second message. According to one example, data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication may refer to data that may be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. According to one example, data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) in the process of performing authentication may refer to at least a part of data related to authentication, as data that may be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) in the process of performing authentication.

[0166] The processor (720) can, with reference to the first information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) received by the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. The processor (720), with reference to the second information, can check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. The processor (720) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, based on the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. According to one example, the processor (720) may determine a smaller value among the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) received by the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, as the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.

[0167] The processor (720) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, and may segment data related to authentication. The processor (720) may segment data related to authentication so that each of the segmented data generated by segmenting the data related to authentication is equal to or smaller than the determined size.

[0168] The processor (720) may control the first communication circuit (710) to transmit a plurality of fifth messages (e.g., SDF follow-up messages (524-a, 524-b)) each including a piece of segmented data to the first electronic device (501).

[0169] In one example, if the segmented data is less than (or less than) a specified size, the segmented data may be included in the SDA field of the fifth message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)). If the segmented data exceeds (or is greater than) the specified size, the segmented data may be included in the SDEA field of the fifth message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)).

[0170] According to one example, if the first electronic device (501) is capable of receiving data having a size greater than or equal to a specified size (255 bytes) during the authentication step, and the second electronic device (502) is capable of transmitting data having a size exceeding the specified size during the authentication step, the determined value may be greater than the specified size. The specified size may be the same as or substantially similar to the maximum size of data that can be included in the SDA field. That is, even if the second electronic device (502) divides data related to authentication so that the divided data exceeds the specified size and transmits the divided data, the first electronic device (501) can normally receive the divided data. The number of times (or the time required for transmission) of a message including divided data having a size exceeding the specified size may be smaller than the number of times (or the time required for transmission) of a message including divided data having a size less than or equal to the specified size. Accordingly, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can reduce the time required for authentication by reducing the time required for transmitting and / or receiving data related to authentication, and can improve the transmission rate of data related to authentication.

[0171] In one example, the processor (720) may not receive the first message from the first electronic device (501). Alternatively, the processor (720) may receive the first message from the first electronic device (501) that does not include the first information. If the processor (720) fails to verify the first information or fails to receive the first message, the processor (720) may control the first communication circuit (710) to segment data related to authentication such that the segmented data has a size smaller than a specified size, and to transmit at least one sixth message including the segmented data to the first electronic device (501). The size of the segmented data included in the sixth message may be smaller than the size of the segmented data included in the fifth message. Accordingly, the number of transmissions of the sixth message (or the time required to transmit the sixth message) may be greater than the number of transmissions of the fifth message (or the time required to transmit the sixth message).

[0172] The processor (720) may transmit information related to authentication to the first electronic device (501) by transmitting a plurality of fifth messages including at least a portion (or segmented data) of information related to authentication. The processor (720) may receive information related to authentication generated by the first electronic device (501) during the authentication process. The processor (720) may perform authentication with the first electronic device (501) based on the information related to authentication generated by the first electronic device (501) and / or the information related to authentication generated by the second electronic device (502), and may set an NDP based on the authentication result. In one example, if authentication with the first electronic device (501) is successful, the processor (720) may set an NDP with the first electronic device (501). The processor (720) can control the first communication circuit (710) to set an NDP and perform communication with the first electronic device (501) through the NDP by referring to the frequency band and / or channel information included in the first message and / or the second message.

[0173] Although the examples described above describe transmitting a first message containing first information via NAN communication and / or receiving a second message containing second information via NAN communication, the transmission / reception of the first message and the second message may be performed via other short-range wireless communication.

[0174] The second electronic device (502) may further include a second communication circuit (not shown) that supports short-range wireless communication other than NAN communication. The second communication circuit (not shown) may be a communication circuit that supports wireless communication other than NAN communication. In one example, the second communication circuit (not shown) may support various wireless communications including Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi, and / or cellular communication, which are wireless communications other than NAN communication.

[0175] The processor (720) may control the second communication circuit to transmit (or broadcast) the second message via another short-range wireless communication during the process of discovering the first electronic device (501). Alternatively, the processor (720) may receive the first message transmitted (or broadcast) via another short-range wireless communication. Alternatively, the processor (720) may receive the first message via another short-range wireless communication and transmit (or broadcast) the second message before performing the operation of discovering the first electronic device (501).

[0176] FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example (800) of a first electronic device dividing data related to authentication based on first information and second information and transmitting the divided data to a second electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0177] A first electronic device (e.g., the first electronic device (501) of FIG. 6) can perform a series of operations to set up (or establish, configure, create) an NDP (NAN data path) for communicating with a second electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502) of FIG. 7) included in a NAN cluster. The first electronic device (501) can perform three major steps of operations to set up an NDP between the second electronic device (502) and the first electronic device (501). As described in FIG. 5, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may perform a discovery step (810) of exchanging at least one message to discover (or search for) each other, an authentication step (820) of exchanging information related to authentication for setting up an NDP after the discovery step (810) and performing authentication based on the information related to authentication, and / or a communication step (830) of setting up an NDP after the authentication step (820) and performing communication through the NDP.

[0178] A first electronic device (e.g., the first electronic device (501) of FIG. 6) may transmit, in operation 801, a first message including first information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., the third message of FIG. 6) exchanged in the process of performing authentication, to a second electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502) of FIG. 7).

[0179] The first message can be transmitted to the second electronic device (502) via NAN communication.

[0180] The first electronic device (501) may control the first communication circuit (610) to transmit (or broadcast) to the second electronic device (502) a first message including first information related to the size of data (e.g., data that may be included in an SDA or SDEA field of a NAN SDF follow-up message) that may be included in a message (e.g., a NAN SDF follow-up message of FIG. 5) exchanged in a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., an authentication step (520) of FIG. 5).

[0181] Transmission of the first message may be performed in the discovery step (810). The first message is a message for searching for the second electronic device (502) and may be substantially identical or similar to the search request message of FIG. 5.

[0182] According to one example, the first information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the first information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives from the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the first information may refer to the maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b, 524-a, 524-b)) transmitted or received by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication.

[0183] The first communication circuit (610) may be controlled to transmit (or broadcast) to the second electronic device (502) a first message including first information related to the size of data (e.g., data that may be included in the SDA or SDEA field of the NAN SDF follow-up message) that may be included in a message (e.g., the NAN SDF follow-up message of FIG. 5) exchanged in a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., the authentication step (520) of FIG. 5).

[0184] The first message may include information required for the first electronic device (501) to perform NAN communication. In one example, the first message may include identification information of the first electronic device (501). The identification information of the first electronic device (501) may refer to various information that can distinguish the first electronic device (501) from other electronic devices. In one example, the first message may include information related to NAN performed by the first electronic device (501). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the first electronic device (501) can support among various functions that the first electronic device (501) supports in NAN communication. The first message may include preferred frequency band and channel information of an NDP to which the first electronic device (501) is to be set.

[0185] According to one example, the first message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the first electronic device (501) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in a connection to obtain information related to authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (820).

[0186] The second electronic device (502) may transmit, in operation 802, a second message to the first electronic device (501) that includes second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., the fifth message of FIG. 7) exchanged during the process of performing authentication.

[0187] The second message can be transmitted to the first electronic device (501) via NAN communication.

[0188] The second message may refer to a response message to the first message. The second message may include second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message) exchanged during a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., authentication step (820)).

[0189] According to one example, the second information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the second information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the second information may refer to the maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b, 524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (501) transmits or receives during the process of performing authentication to the first electronic device (501).

[0190] As an example, the second message may be substantially identical or similar to the search response message of FIG. 5.

[0191] The second message may include information required for the second electronic device (502) to perform NAN communication. In one example, the second message may include identification information of the second electronic device (502). The identification information of the second electronic device (502) may refer to various information that can distinguish the second electronic device (502) from other electronic devices. In one example, the second message may include information related to NAN performed by the second electronic device (502). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the second electronic device (502) can support among various functions that the second electronic device (502) supports in NAN communication.

[0192] In one example, the second message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the second electronic device (502) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in the connection to obtain information related to the authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (820).

[0193] A first electronic device (501) can search for (or discover, or find) an external electronic device (e.g., a second electronic device (502)) to set up an NDP by transmitting a first message. After receiving the first message, the second electronic device (502) can determine whether to connect with the first electronic device (501) via an NDP based on various information included in the first message. Based on the decision to connect with the first electronic device (501) via an NDP, the second electronic device (502) can transmit a second message. The first electronic device (501) can control the first communication circuit (610) to repeatedly transmit (or broadcast) the first message until the second message is received.

[0194] The first electronic device (501) can determine the size of data to be divided based on the first information and the second information in operation 803.

[0195] The first electronic device (501) can receive a second message from the second electronic device (502) while discovering the second electronic device (502) and check the second information included in the second message.

[0196] The first electronic device (501) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication based on the first information and the second information. According to one example, the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication may refer to data that may be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. According to one example, data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from a first electronic device (501) to a second electronic device (502) in the process of performing authentication may refer to at least a part of data related to authentication, as data that may be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from a first electronic device (501) to a second electronic device (502) in the process of performing authentication.

[0197] The first electronic device (501) can, with reference to the first information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. The first electronic device (501) can, with reference to the second information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. The first electronic device (501) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, based on the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.According to one example, the first electronic device (501) may determine, as the size of the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, a smaller value among the maximum size of data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication.

[0198] The first electronic device (501) may, in operation 804, segment data related to authentication based on the determined size.

[0199] The first electronic device (501) can determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, and can segment the data related to authentication. The first electronic device (501) can segment the data related to authentication so that each of the segmented data generated by segmenting the data related to authentication is equal to or smaller than the determined size.

[0200] The first electronic device (501) can transmit (805-a, 805-b) a plurality of third messages each including segmented data to the second electronic device (502).

[0201] The first electronic device (501) can control the first communication circuit (610) to transmit a plurality of third messages (e.g., SDF follow-up messages (522-a, 522-b)) each including a piece of segmented data to the second electronic device (502).

[0202] In one example, if the segmented data is less than (or less than) a specified size, the segmented data may be included in the SDA field of a third message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)). If the segmented data exceeds (or is greater than) a specified size, the segmented data may be included in the SDEA field of a third message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)).

[0203] According to one example, if the second electronic device (502) is capable of receiving data having a size greater than or equal to a specified size (255 bytes) during the authentication step, and the first electronic device (501) is capable of transmitting data having a size exceeding the specified size during the authentication step, the determined value may be greater than the specified size. The specified size may be the same as or substantially similar to the maximum size of data that can be included in the SDA field. That is, even if the first electronic device (501) divides data related to authentication so that the divided data exceeds the specified size and transmits the divided data, the second electronic device (502) can normally receive the divided data. The number of times (or the time required for transmission) of a message including divided data exceeding the specified size may be smaller than the number of times (or the time required for transmission) of a message including divided data having a size less than or equal to the specified size. Accordingly, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can reduce the time required for authentication by reducing the time required for transmitting and / or receiving data related to authentication, and can improve the transmission rate of data related to authentication.

[0204] The second electronic device (502) may transmit data related to authentication generated by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) at operation 806.

[0205] The second electronic device (502) can, with reference to the first information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives during the process of performing authentication. The second electronic device (502) can, with reference to the second information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. The processor (720) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, based on the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.According to one example, the second electronic device (502) may determine a smaller value among the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) received by the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, as the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.

[0206] The second electronic device (502) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, and may segment the data related to authentication. The processor (720) may segment the data related to authentication so that each of the segmented data generated by segmenting the data related to authentication is equal to or smaller than the determined size.

[0207] The second electronic device (502) can control the first communication circuit (710) to transmit a plurality of fifth messages (e.g., SDF follow-up messages (524-a, 524-b)) each including a piece of segmented data to the first electronic device (501).

[0208] The second electronic device (502) can control the first communication circuit (710) to transmit a fifth message including the data to the first electronic device (501) without dividing the data, when the size of the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) in the process of performing authentication is less than a specified size.

[0209] Action 803, action 804, action 805-a, action 805-b and / or action 806 may be actions included in the authentication step (820) performed by the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502).

[0210] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may perform a communication step (830) after performing the authentication step (820) and, upon successful authentication, the communication step (830). Operations 807 and 808 described below may be the communication step (830).

[0211] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can set up an NDP using data related to authentication in operation 807.

[0212] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can perform verification based on information related to authentication exchanged with each other, and if verification is successful, perform a series of operations to set an NDP. The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can set an NDP by referring to frequency band and / or channel information included in a search request message and / or a search response message.

[0213] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can communicate via NDP in operation 808.

[0214] FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a first electronic device divides data related to authentication based on first information and second information and transmits the divided data to a second electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0215] A first electronic device (e.g., the first electronic device (501) of FIG. 6) can perform a series of operations to set up (or establish, configure, create) an NDP (NAN data path) for communicating with a second electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502) of FIG. 7) included in a NAN cluster. The first electronic device (501) can perform three major steps of operations to set up an NDP between the second electronic device (502) and the first electronic device (501). As described in FIG. 5, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may perform a discovery step (910) of exchanging at least one message to discover (or search for) each other, an authentication step (920) of exchanging information related to authentication for setting up an NDP after the discovery step (910) and performing authentication based on the information related to authentication, and / or a communication step (930) of setting up an NDP after the authentication step (920) and performing communication through the NDP.

[0216] A first electronic device (e.g., the first electronic device (501) of FIG. 6) may transmit a search request message to search for a second electronic device (502) in operation 901.

[0217] The search request message may include information required for the first electronic device (501) to perform NAN communication. In one example, the search request message may include identification information of the first electronic device (501). The identification information of the first electronic device (501) may refer to various information that can distinguish the first electronic device (501) from other electronic devices. In one example, the search request message may include information related to NAN performed by the first electronic device (501). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the first electronic device (501) can support among various functions that the first electronic device (501) supports in NAN communication. In addition, the search request message may include preferred frequency band and channel information of an NDP to which the first electronic device (501) is to be set.

[0218] As an example, the search request message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the first electronic device (501) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in the connection to obtain information related to authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (920).

[0219] The search request message may refer to a NAN SDF publish message, and the first electronic device (501) may transmit (or broadcast) the search request message at a specified period and / or a specified number of times until the second electronic device (502) is discovered.

[0220] The first electronic device (501) may transmit, in operation 902, a first message including first information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., the third message of FIG. 6) exchanged in the process of performing authentication, to a second electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502) of FIG. 7).

[0221] The first message may be transmitted to the second electronic device (502) via NAN communication and other short-range wireless communication (e.g., Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi).

[0222] The first electronic device (501) may control the first communication circuit (610) to transmit (or broadcast) to the second electronic device (502) a first message including first information related to the size of data (e.g., data that may be included in an SDA or SDEA field of a NAN SDF follow-up message) that may be included in a message (e.g., a NAN SDF follow-up message of FIG. 5) exchanged in a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., an authentication step (520) of FIG. 5).

[0223] Transmission of the first message can be performed in the discovery step (910).

[0224] According to one example, the first information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the first information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives from the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the first information may refer to the maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b, 524-a, 524-b)) transmitted or received by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication.

[0225] The first electronic device (501) may transmit (or broadcast) to the second electronic device (502) a first message including first information related to the size of data (e.g., data that may be included in an SDA or SDEA field of a NAN SDF follow-up message) that may be included in a message (e.g., a NAN SDF follow-up message of FIG. 5) exchanged in a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., an authentication step (520) of FIG. 5).

[0226] The second electronic device (502) may transmit, in operation 903, a second message to the first electronic device (501) that includes second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., the fifth message of FIG. 7) exchanged during the process of performing authentication.

[0227] The second message can be transmitted to the first electronic device (501) via NAN communication.

[0228] The second message may refer to a response message to the search request message transmitted in operation 901. The second message may include second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message) exchanged during a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., authentication step (520)).

[0229] According to one example, the second information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the second information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the second information may refer to the maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b, 524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (501) transmits or receives during the process of performing authentication to the first electronic device (501).

[0230] As an example, the second message may be substantially identical or similar to the search response message of FIG. 5.

[0231] The second message may include information required for the second electronic device (502) to perform NAN communication. In one example, the second message may include identification information of the second electronic device (502). The identification information of the second electronic device (502) may refer to various information that can distinguish the second electronic device (502) from other electronic devices. In one example, the second message may include information related to NAN performed by the second electronic device (502). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the second electronic device (502) can support among various functions that the second electronic device (502) supports in NAN communication.

[0232] In one example, the second message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the second electronic device (502) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in the connection to obtain information related to the authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (520).

[0233] A first electronic device (501) can search for (or discover, search for) an external electronic device (e.g., a second electronic device (502)) for which an NDP is to be set by transmitting a search request message. After receiving the search request message, the second electronic device (502) can determine whether to connect with the first electronic device (501) via an NDP based on various information included in the search request message. Based on the decision to connect with the first electronic device (501) via an NDP, the second electronic device (502) can transmit a second message. The first electronic device (501) can control the first communication circuit (610) to repeatedly transmit (or broadcast) the first message until the second message is received.

[0234] The first electronic device (501) can determine the size of data to be divided based on the first information and the second information in operation 904.

[0235] The first electronic device (501) can receive a second message from the second electronic device (502) while discovering the second electronic device (502) and check the second information included in the second message.

[0236] The first electronic device (501) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication based on the first information and the second information. According to one example, the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication may refer to data that may be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. According to one example, data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from a first electronic device (501) to a second electronic device (502) in the process of performing authentication may refer to at least a part of data related to authentication, as data that may be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from a first electronic device (501) to a second electronic device (502) in the process of performing authentication.

[0237] The first electronic device (501) can, with reference to the first information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. The first electronic device (501) can, with reference to the second information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. The first electronic device (501) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, based on the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.According to one example, the first electronic device (501) may determine, as the size of the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, a smaller value among the maximum size of data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication.

[0238] The first electronic device (501) may, in operation 905, segment data related to authentication based on the determined size.

[0239] The first electronic device (501) can determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, and can segment the data related to authentication. The first electronic device (501) can segment the data related to authentication so that each of the segmented data generated by segmenting the data related to authentication is equal to or smaller than the determined size.

[0240] The first electronic device (501) can transmit (906-a, 906-b) a plurality of third messages each including segmented data to the second electronic device (502).

[0241] The first electronic device (501) can control the first communication circuit (610) to transmit a plurality of third messages (e.g., SDF follow-up messages (522-a, 522-b)) each including a piece of segmented data to the second electronic device (502).

[0242] In one example, if the segmented data is less than (or less than) a specified size, the segmented data may be included in the SDA field of a third message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)). If the segmented data exceeds (or is greater than) a specified size, the segmented data may be included in the SDEA field of a third message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)).

[0243] According to one example, if the second electronic device (502) is capable of receiving data having a size greater than or equal to a specified size (255 bytes) during the authentication step, and the first electronic device (501) is capable of transmitting data having a size exceeding the specified size during the authentication step, the determined value may be greater than the specified size. The specified size may be the same as or substantially similar to the maximum size of data that can be included in the SDA field. That is, even if the first electronic device (501) divides data related to authentication so that the divided data exceeds the specified size and transmits the divided data, the second electronic device (502) can normally receive the divided data. The number of times (or the time required for transmission) of a message including divided data exceeding the specified size may be smaller than the number of times (or the time required for transmission) of a message including divided data having a size less than or equal to the specified size. Accordingly, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can reduce the time required for authentication by reducing the time required for transmitting and / or receiving data related to authentication, and can improve the transmission rate of data related to authentication.

[0244] The second electronic device (502) may transmit data related to authentication generated by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) at operation 907.

[0245] The second electronic device (502) can, with reference to the first information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives during the process of performing authentication. The second electronic device (502) can, with reference to the second information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. The processor (720) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, based on the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.According to one example, the second electronic device (502) may determine a smaller value among the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) received by the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, as the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.

[0246] The second electronic device (502) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, and may segment the data related to authentication. The processor (720) may segment the data related to authentication so that each of the segmented data generated by segmenting the data related to authentication is equal to or smaller than the determined size.

[0247] The second electronic device (502) can control the first communication circuit (710) to transmit a plurality of fifth messages (e.g., SDF follow-up messages (524-a, 524-b)) each including a piece of segmented data to the first electronic device (501).

[0248] The second electronic device (502) can control the first communication circuit (710) to transmit a fifth message including the data to the first electronic device (501) without dividing the data, when the size of the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) in the process of performing authentication is less than a specified size.

[0249] Actions 904, 905, 906-a, 906-b and / or 907 may be actions included in the authentication step (920) performed by the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502).

[0250] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may perform a communication step (930) after the authentication step (920) is performed and, upon successful authentication, the communication step (930). Operations 908 and 909 described below may be communication steps (930).

[0251] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can set up an NDP using data related to authentication in operation 908.

[0252] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can perform verification based on information related to authentication exchanged with each other, and if verification is successful, perform a series of operations to set an NDP. The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can set an NDP by referring to frequency band and / or channel information included in a search request message and / or a search response message.

[0253] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can communicate via NDP in operation 909.

[0254] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a first electronic device dividing data related to authentication based on first information and second information and transmitting the divided data to a second electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0255] A first electronic device (e.g., the first electronic device (501) of FIG. 6) can perform a series of operations to set up (or establish, configure, create) an NDP (NAN data path) for communicating with a second electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502) of FIG. 7) included in a NAN cluster. The first electronic device (501) can perform three major steps of operations to set up an NDP between the second electronic device (502) and the first electronic device (501). As described in FIG. 5, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may perform a discovery step (1020) of exchanging at least one message to discover (or search for) each other, an authentication step (1030) of exchanging information related to authentication for setting up an NDP after the discovery step (1020) and performing authentication based on the information related to authentication, and / or a communication step (1040) of setting up an NDP after the authentication step (1030) and performing communication through the NDP.

[0256] A first electronic device (e.g., the first electronic device (501) of FIG. 6) may transmit a search request message to search for a second electronic device (502) in operation 1001.

[0257] The search request message may include information required for the first electronic device (501) to perform NAN communication. According to one example, the search request message may include identification information of the first electronic device (501). The identification information of the first electronic device (501) may refer to various information that can distinguish the first electronic device (501) from other electronic devices. According to one example, the search request message may include performance information related to NAN performed by the first electronic device (501). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the first electronic device (501) can support among various functions that the first electronic device (501) supports in NAN communication. In addition, the search request message may include preferred frequency band and channel information of an NDP to which the first electronic device (501) is to be set.

[0258] As an example, the search request message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the first electronic device (501) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in a connection to obtain information related to authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (520).

[0259] The search request message may refer to a NAN SDF publish message, and the first electronic device (501) may transmit (or broadcast) the search request message at a specified period and / or a specified number of times until the second electronic device (502) is discovered.

[0260] The first electronic device (501) may transmit, in operation 1002, a first message including first information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., the third message of FIG. 6) exchanged in the process of performing authentication, to a second electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502) of FIG. 7).

[0261] The first message may be transmitted to the second electronic device (502) via NAN communication and other short-range wireless communication (e.g., Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi).

[0262] The first electronic device (501) may control the first communication circuit (610) to transmit (or broadcast) to the second electronic device (502) a first message including first information related to the size of data (e.g., data that may be included in an SDA or SDEA field of a NAN SDF follow-up message) that may be included in a message (e.g., a NAN SDF follow-up message of FIG. 5) exchanged in a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., an authentication step (520) of FIG. 5).

[0263] Transmission of the first message can be performed in the discovery step (1020).

[0264] According to one example, the first information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the first information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives from the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the first information may refer to the maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b, 524-a, 524-b)) transmitted or received by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication.

[0265] The first communication circuit (610) may be controlled to transmit (or broadcast) to the second electronic device (502) a first message including first information related to the size of data (e.g., data that may be included in the SDA or SDEA field of the NAN SDF follow-up message) that may be included in a message (e.g., the NAN SDF follow-up message of FIG. 5) exchanged in a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., the authentication step (520) of FIG. 5).

[0266] According to one example, the first message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the first electronic device (501) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in a connection to obtain information related to authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (1030).

[0267] The second electronic device (502) may transmit, in operation 1003, a second message to the first electronic device (501) that includes second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., the fifth message of FIG. 7) exchanged during the process of performing authentication.

[0268] The second message may be transmitted to the first electronic device (501) via NAN communication and other short-range wireless communication (e.g., Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi).

[0269] The second message may include second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message) exchanged during a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., authentication step (1030)).

[0270] According to one example, the second information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the second information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the second information may refer to the maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b, 524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (501) transmits or receives during the process of performing authentication to the first electronic device (501).

[0271] The second electronic device (502) may, in operation 1004, transmit a search response message to the first electronic device (501).

[0272] The search response message can be transmitted via NAN communication.

[0273] The search response message may include information required for the second electronic device (502) to perform NAN communication. According to one example, the search response message may include identification information of the second electronic device (502). The identification information of the second electronic device (502) may refer to various information that can distinguish the second electronic device (502) from other electronic devices. According to one example, the search response message may include information related to NAN performed by the second electronic device (502). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the second electronic device (502) can support among various functions that the second electronic device (502) supports in NAN communication.

[0274] In one example, the search response message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the second electronic device (502) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in the connection to obtain information related to the authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (1030).

[0275] A first electronic device (501) can search for (or discover, search for) an external electronic device (e.g., a second electronic device (502)) for which an NDP is to be set by transmitting a search request message. After receiving the search request message, the second electronic device (502) can determine whether to connect with the first electronic device (501) via an NDP based on various information included in the search request message. Based on the decision to connect with the first electronic device (501) via an NDP, the second electronic device (502) can transmit a search response message and / or a second message. The first electronic device (501) can control the first communication circuit (610) to repeatedly transmit (or broadcast) the first message until a search response message is received.

[0276] The first electronic device (501) can determine the size of data to be divided based on the first information and the second information in operation 1005.

[0277] The first electronic device (501) can receive a second message from the second electronic device (502) while discovering the second electronic device (502) and check the second information included in the second message.

[0278] The first electronic device (501) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication based on the first information and the second information. According to one example, the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication may refer to data that may be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. According to one example, data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from a first electronic device (501) to a second electronic device (502) in the process of performing authentication may refer to at least a part of data related to authentication, as data that may be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from a first electronic device (501) to a second electronic device (502) in the process of performing authentication.

[0279] The first electronic device (501) can, with reference to the first information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. The first electronic device (501) can, with reference to the second information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. The first electronic device (501) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, based on the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.According to one example, the first electronic device (501) may determine, as the size of the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, a smaller value among the maximum size of data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication.

[0280] The first electronic device (501) can segment data related to authentication based on the determined size in operation 1006.

[0281] The first electronic device (501) can determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, and can segment the data related to authentication. The first electronic device (501) can segment the data related to authentication so that each of the segmented data generated by segmenting the data related to authentication is equal to or smaller than the determined size.

[0282] The first electronic device (501) can transmit (1007-a, 1007-b) a plurality of third messages each including segmented data to the second electronic device (502).

[0283] The first electronic device (501) can control the first communication circuit (610) to transmit a plurality of third messages (e.g., SDF follow-up messages (522-a, 522-b)) each including a piece of segmented data to the second electronic device (502).

[0284] In one example, if the segmented data is less than (or less than) a specified size, the segmented data may be included in the SDA field of a third message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)). If the segmented data exceeds (or is greater than) a specified size, the segmented data may be included in the SDEA field of a third message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)).

[0285] According to one example, if the second electronic device (502) is capable of receiving data having a size greater than or equal to a specified size (255 bytes) during the authentication step, and the first electronic device (501) is capable of transmitting data having a size exceeding the specified size during the authentication step, the determined value may be greater than the specified size. The specified size may be the same as or substantially similar to the maximum size of data that can be included in the SDA field. That is, even if the first electronic device (501) divides data related to authentication so that the divided data exceeds the specified size and transmits the divided data, the second electronic device (502) can normally receive the divided data. The number of times (or the time required for transmission) of a message including divided data having a size exceeding the specified size may be smaller than the number of times (or the time required for transmission) of a message including divided data having a size less than or equal to the specified size. Accordingly, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can reduce the time required for authentication by reducing the time required for transmitting and / or receiving data related to authentication, and can improve the transmission rate of data related to authentication.

[0286] The second electronic device (502) may transmit data related to authentication generated by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) in operation 1008.

[0287] The second electronic device (502) can, with reference to the first information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives during the process of performing authentication. The second electronic device (502) can, with reference to the second information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. The processor (720) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, based on the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.According to one example, the second electronic device (502) may determine a smaller value among the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) received by the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, as the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.

[0288] The second electronic device (502) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, and may segment the data related to authentication. The processor (720) may segment the data related to authentication so that each of the segmented data generated by segmenting the data related to authentication is equal to or smaller than the determined size.

[0289] The second electronic device (502) can control the first communication circuit (710) to transmit a plurality of fifth messages (e.g., SDF follow-up messages (524-a, 524-b)) each including a piece of segmented data to the first electronic device (501).

[0290] The second electronic device (502) can control the first communication circuit (710) to transmit a fifth message including the data to the first electronic device (501) without dividing the data, when the size of the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) in the process of performing authentication is less than a specified size.

[0291] Action 1005, action 1006, action 1007-a, action 1007-b and / or action 1008 may be actions included in the authentication step (1030) performed by the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502).

[0292] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may perform a communication step (1040) after the authentication step (1030) is performed and, upon successful authentication, the communication step (1040). Operations 1009 and 1010 described below may be communication steps (1040).

[0293] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can set up an NDP using data related to authentication in operation 1009.

[0294] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can perform verification based on information related to authentication exchanged with each other, and if verification is successful, perform a series of operations to set an NDP. The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can set an NDP by referring to frequency band and / or channel information included in a search request message and / or a search response message.

[0295] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can communicate via NDP in operation 1010.

[0296] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example (1100) of a first electronic device dividing data related to authentication based on first information and second information and transmitting the divided data to a second electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0297] A first electronic device (e.g., the first electronic device (501) of FIG. 6) can perform a series of operations to set up (or establish, configure, create) an NDP (NAN data path) for communicating with a second electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502) of FIG. 7) included in a NAN cluster. The first electronic device (501) can perform three major steps of operations to set up an NDP between the second electronic device (502) and the first electronic device (501). As described in FIG. 5, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may perform a discovery step (1120) of exchanging at least one message to discover (or search for) each other, an authentication step (1130) of exchanging information related to authentication for setting up an NDP after the discovery step (1120) and performing authentication based on the information related to authentication, and / or a communication step (1140) of setting up an NDP after the authentication step (1130) and performing communication through the NDP.

[0298] The first electronic device (501) may transmit, in operation 1101, a first message including first information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., the third message of FIG. 6) exchanged in the process of performing authentication, to a second electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502) of FIG. 7).

[0299] The first message may be transmitted to the second electronic device (502) via NAN communication and other short-range wireless communication (e.g., Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi).

[0300] The first electronic device (501) may control the first communication circuit (610) to transmit (or broadcast) to the second electronic device (502) a first message including first information related to the size of data (e.g., data that may be included in an SDA or SDEA field of a NAN SDF follow-up message) that may be included in a message (e.g., a NAN SDF follow-up message of FIG. 5) exchanged in a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., an authentication step (520) of FIG. 5).

[0301] Transmission of the first message may be performed prior to the discovery step (1120).

[0302] According to one example, the first information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the first information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives from the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the first information may refer to the maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b, 524-a, 524-b)) transmitted or received by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication.

[0303] The first communication circuit (610) may be controlled to transmit (or broadcast) to the second electronic device (502) a first message including first information related to the size of data (e.g., data that may be included in the SDA or SDEA field of the NAN SDF follow-up message) that may be included in a message (e.g., the NAN SDF follow-up message of FIG. 5) exchanged in a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., the authentication step (520) of FIG. 5).

[0304] According to one example, the first message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the first electronic device (501) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in a connection to obtain information related to authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (1130).

[0305] The second electronic device (502) may transmit, in operation 1102, a second message to the first electronic device (501) that includes second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., the fifth message of FIG. 7) exchanged during the process of performing authentication.

[0306] The second message may be transmitted to the first electronic device (501) via NAN communication and other short-range wireless communication (e.g., Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi).

[0307] The second message may include second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message) exchanged during a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., authentication step (520)).

[0308] According to one example, the second information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the second information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the second information may refer to the maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b, 524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (501) transmits or receives during the process of performing authentication to the first electronic device (501).

[0309] The operations 1101 and 1102 described above may be performed before the discovery step (1120). The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may perform the operations included in the discovery step (1120) (e.g., operations 1103 and 1104) after receiving the first information and the second information.

[0310] A first electronic device (e.g., the first electronic device (501) of FIG. 6) may transmit a search request message to search for a second electronic device (502) in operation 1103.

[0311] The search request message may include information required for the first electronic device (501) to perform NAN communication. In one example, the search request message may include identification information of the first electronic device (501). The identification information of the first electronic device (501) may refer to various information that can distinguish the first electronic device (501) from other electronic devices. In one example, the search request message may include information related to NAN performed by the first electronic device (501). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the first electronic device (501) can support among various functions that the first electronic device (501) supports in NAN communication. In addition, the search request message may include preferred frequency band and channel information of an NDP to which the first electronic device (501) is to be set.

[0312] As an example, the search request message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the first electronic device (501) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in a connection to obtain information related to authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (1130).

[0313] The search request message may refer to a NAN SDF publish message, and the first electronic device (501) may transmit (or broadcast) the search request message at a specified period and / or a specified number of times until the second electronic device (502) is discovered.

[0314] The second electronic device (502) may transmit a search response message to the first electronic device (501) in operation 1104.

[0315] The search response message can be transmitted via NAN communication.

[0316] The search response message may include information required for the second electronic device (502) to perform NAN communication. According to one example, the search response message may include identification information of the second electronic device (502). The identification information of the second electronic device (502) may refer to various information that can distinguish the second electronic device (502) from other electronic devices, and may include an IP address of the second electronic device (502) and a MAC (medium access control) address of the second electronic device (502). According to one example, the search response message may include performance information related to NAN performed by the second electronic device (502). The performance information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the second electronic device (502) can support among various functions that the second electronic device (502) supports in NAN communication.

[0317] In one example, the search response message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the second electronic device (502) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in the connection to obtain information related to the authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (1130).

[0318] The first electronic device (501) can search for (or search, discover) an external electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502)) for which an NDP is to be set by transmitting a search request message. After receiving the search request message, the second electronic device (502) can determine whether to connect with the first electronic device (501) via the NDP based on various information included in the search request message. The second electronic device (502) can transmit a search response message and / or a second message based on the decision to connect with the first electronic device (501) via the NDP. The first electronic device (501) can control the first communication circuit (610) to repeatedly transmit (or broadcast) the search request message until a search response message is received.

[0319] The first electronic device (501) can determine the size of data to be divided based on the first information and the second information in operation 1105.

[0320] The first electronic device (501) can receive a second message from the second electronic device (502) while discovering the second electronic device (502) and check the second information included in the second message.

[0321] The first electronic device (501) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication based on the first information and the second information. According to one example, the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication may refer to data that may be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. According to one example, data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from a first electronic device (501) to a second electronic device (502) in the process of performing authentication may refer to at least a part of data related to authentication, as data that may be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from a first electronic device (501) to a second electronic device (502) in the process of performing authentication.

[0322] The first electronic device (501) can, with reference to the first information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. The first electronic device (501) can, with reference to the second information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. The first electronic device (501) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, based on the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.According to one example, the first electronic device (501) may determine, as the size of the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, a smaller value among the maximum size of data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication.

[0323] The first electronic device (501) may, in operation 1106, segment data related to authentication based on the determined size.

[0324] The first electronic device (501) can determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, and can segment the data related to authentication. The first electronic device (501) can segment the data related to authentication so that each of the segmented data generated by segmenting the data related to authentication is equal to or smaller than the determined size.

[0325] The first electronic device (501) can transmit (1107-a, 1107-b) a plurality of third messages each including segmented data to the second electronic device (502).

[0326] The first electronic device (501) can control the first communication circuit (610) to transmit a plurality of third messages (e.g., SDF follow-up messages (522-a, 522-b)) each including a piece of segmented data to the second electronic device (502).

[0327] In one example, if the segmented data is less than (or less than) a specified size, the segmented data may be included in the SDA field of a third message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)). If the segmented data exceeds (or more than) a specified size, the segmented data may be included in the SDEA field of a third message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)).

[0328] According to one example, if the second electronic device (502) is capable of receiving data having a size greater than or equal to a specified size (255 bytes) during the authentication step, and the first electronic device (501) is capable of transmitting data having a size exceeding the specified size during the authentication step, the determined value may be greater than the specified size. The specified size may be the same as or substantially similar to the maximum size of data that can be included in the SDA field. That is, even if the first electronic device (501) divides data related to authentication so that the divided data exceeds the specified size and transmits the divided data, the second electronic device (502) can normally receive the divided data. The number of times (or the time required for transmission) of a message including divided data exceeding the specified size may be smaller than the number of times (or the time required for transmission) of a message including divided data having a size less than or equal to the specified size. Accordingly, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can reduce the time required for authentication by reducing the time required for transmitting and / or receiving data related to authentication, and can improve the transmission rate of data related to authentication.

[0329] The second electronic device (502) may transmit data related to authentication generated by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) in operation 1108.

[0330] The second electronic device (502) can, with reference to the first information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives during the process of performing authentication. The second electronic device (502) can, with reference to the second information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. The processor (720) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, based on the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.According to one example, the second electronic device (502) may determine a smaller value among the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) received by the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, as the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.

[0331] The second electronic device (502) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication, and may segment the data related to authentication. The processor (720) may segment the data related to authentication so that each of the segmented data generated by segmenting the data related to authentication is equal to or smaller than the determined size.

[0332] The second electronic device (502) can control the first communication circuit (710) to transmit a plurality of fifth messages (e.g., SDF follow-up messages (524-a, 524-b)) each including a piece of segmented data to the first electronic device (501).

[0333] The second electronic device (502) can control the first communication circuit (710) to transmit a fifth message including the data to the first electronic device (501) without dividing the data, when the size of the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) transmitted by the second electronic device (502) to the first electronic device (501) in the process of performing authentication is less than a specified size.

[0334] Actions 1105, 1106, 1107-a, 1107-b and / or 1108 may be actions included in the authentication step (1130) performed by the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502).

[0335] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may perform a communication step (1140) after the authentication step (1130) is performed and, upon successful authentication, the communication step (1140). Operations 1109 and 1110 described below may be communication steps (1140).

[0336] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can set up an NDP using data related to authentication in operation 1109.

[0337] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can perform verification based on information related to authentication exchanged with each other, and if verification is successful, perform a series of operations to set an NDP. The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can set an NDP by referring to frequency band and / or channel information included in a search request message and / or a search response message.

[0338] The first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can perform communication via NDP in operation 1110.

[0339] FIG. 12 is an operational flowchart (1200) illustrating an operating method of a first electronic device according to one embodiment.

[0340] A first electronic device (e.g., the first electronic device (501) of FIG. 6) may, in operation 1210, broadcast a first message including first information related to the size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during an authentication process between the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502) of FIG. 7), before discovering the second electronic device (502).

[0341] A first electronic device (501) can perform a series of operations to set up (or establish, configure, create) an NDP (NAN data path) for communicating with a second electronic device (502) included in a NAN cluster. The first electronic device (501) can perform three major steps of operations to set up an NDP between the second electronic device (502) and the first electronic device (501). As described in FIG. 5, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) may perform a discovery step (510) of exchanging at least one message to discover (or search for) each other, an authentication step (520) of exchanging information related to authentication for setting up an NDP after the discovery step (510) and performing authentication based on the information related to authentication, and / or a communication step (530) of setting up an NDP after the authentication step (520) and performing communication through the NDP.

[0342] The first electronic device (501) may control the first communication circuit (610) to transmit (or broadcast) to the second electronic device (502) a first message including first information related to the size of data (e.g., data that may be included in an SDA or SDEA field of a NAN SDF follow-up message) that may be included in a message (e.g., a NAN SDF follow-up message of FIG. 5) exchanged in a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., an authentication step (520) of FIG. 5).

[0343] Transmission of the first message may be performed in the discovery step (510). The first message is a message for searching for the second electronic device (502) and may be substantially identical or similar to the search request message of FIG. 5.

[0344] According to one example, the first information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the first information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the first electronic device (501) receives from the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the first information may refer to the maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b, 524-a, 524-b)) transmitted or received by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication.

[0345] The first communication circuit (610) may be controlled to transmit (or broadcast) to the second electronic device (502) a first message including first information related to the size of data (e.g., data that may be included in the SDA or SDEA field of the NAN SDF follow-up message) that may be included in a message (e.g., the NAN SDF follow-up message of FIG. 5) exchanged in a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., the authentication step (520) of FIG. 5).

[0346] The first message may include information required for the first electronic device (501) to perform NAN communication. In one example, the first message may include identification information of the first electronic device (501). The identification information of the first electronic device (501) may refer to various information that can distinguish the first electronic device (501) from other electronic devices. In one example, the first message may include information related to NAN performed by the first electronic device (501). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the first electronic device (501) can support among various functions that the first electronic device (501) supports in NAN communication. The first message may include preferred frequency band and channel information of an NDP to which the first electronic device (501) is to be set.

[0347] As an example, the first message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the first electronic device (501) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in a connection to obtain information related to authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (520).

[0348] The first electronic device (501) can search for (or discover, or find) an external electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502)) to set up an NDP by transmitting a first message. After receiving the first message, the second electronic device (502) can determine whether to connect with the first electronic device (501) via an NDP based on various information included in the first message. The second electronic device (502) can transmit a second message based on the decision to connect with the first electronic device (501) via an NDP. The processor (620) can control the first communication circuit (610) to repeatedly transmit (or broadcast) the first message until the second message is received.

[0349] The first electronic device (501) may receive, at operation 1220, a second message including second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during the process of performing authentication between the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502), prior to discovering the second electronic device (502).

[0350] The second message may refer to a response message to the first message. The second message may include second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message) exchanged during a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication (e.g., authentication step (520)).

[0351] According to one example, the second information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (502) transmits to the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the second information may refer to a maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., an SDA field or an SDEA field) of a message (e.g., an SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. Alternatively, the second information may refer to the maximum size of data that can be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b, 524-a, 524-b)) that the second electronic device (501) transmits or receives during the process of performing authentication to the first electronic device (501).

[0352] As an example, the second message may be substantially identical or similar to the search response message of FIG. 5.

[0353] The second message may include information required for the second electronic device (502) to perform NAN communication. In one example, the second message may include identification information of the second electronic device (502). The identification information of the second electronic device (502) may refer to various information that can distinguish the second electronic device (502) from other electronic devices. In one example, the second message may include information related to NAN performed by the second electronic device (502). The information related to NAN may include information indicating functions that the second electronic device (502) can support among various functions that the second electronic device (502) supports in NAN communication.

[0354] In one example, the second message may include security information (e.g., information indicating a communication method that the second electronic device (502) can support to obtain a certificate) to be used in the connection to obtain information related to the authentication to be exchanged in the authentication step (520).

[0355] The first electronic device (501) can receive a second message from the second electronic device (502) while discovering the second electronic device (502) and check the second information included in the second message.

[0356] The first electronic device (501) may, in operation 1230, divide data related to authentication based on a size determined based on the first information and the second information, and transmit at least one third message including the divided data to the second electronic device (502).

[0357] The first electronic device (501) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication based on the first information and the second information. According to one example, the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication may refer to data that may be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. According to one example, data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from a first electronic device (501) to a second electronic device (502) in the process of performing authentication may refer to at least a part of data related to authentication, as data that may be included in a specific field (e.g., SDA field or SDEA field) of a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted from a first electronic device (501) to a second electronic device (502) in the process of performing authentication.

[0358] The first electronic device (501) can, with reference to the first information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication. The first electronic device (501) can, with reference to the second information, check the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication. The first electronic device (501) may determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, based on the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the first electronic device (501) transmits to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication and the maximum size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) that the second electronic device (502) receives from the first electronic device (501) during the process of performing authentication.According to one example, the first electronic device (501) may determine, as the size of the data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, a smaller value among the maximum size of data to be included in the message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication.

[0359] The first electronic device (501) can determine the size of data to be included in a message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)) transmitted by the first electronic device (501) to the second electronic device (502) during the process of performing authentication, and can segment the data related to authentication. The first electronic device (501) can segment the data related to authentication so that each of the segmented data generated by segmenting the data related to authentication is equal to or smaller than the determined size.

[0360] The first electronic device (501) can control the first communication circuit (610) to transmit a plurality of third messages (e.g., SDF follow-up messages (522-a, 522-b)) each including a piece of segmented data to the second electronic device (502).

[0361] In one example, if the segmented data is less than (or less than) a specified size, the segmented data may be included in the SDA field of a third message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)). If the segmented data exceeds (or is greater than) a specified size, the segmented data may be included in the SDEA field of a third message (e.g., SDF follow-up message (522-a, 522-b)).

[0362] According to one example, if the second electronic device (502) is capable of receiving data having a size greater than or equal to a specified size (255 bytes) during the authentication step, and the first electronic device (501) is capable of transmitting data having a size exceeding the specified size during the authentication step, the determined value may be greater than the specified size. The specified size may be the same as or substantially similar to the maximum size of data that can be included in the SDA field. That is, even if the first electronic device (501) divides data related to authentication so that the divided data exceeds the specified size and transmits the divided data, the second electronic device (502) can normally receive the divided data. The number of times (or the time required for transmission) of a message including divided data having a size exceeding the specified size may be smaller than the number of times (or the time required for transmission) of a message including divided data having a size less than or equal to the specified size. Accordingly, the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) can reduce the time required for authentication by reducing the time required for transmitting and / or receiving data related to authentication, and can improve the transmission rate of data related to authentication.

[0363] The first electronic device (501) can communicate with the second electronic device (502) through an NDP set based on data related to authentication in operation 1240.

[0364] The first electronic device (501) may perform authentication with the second electronic device (502) based on information related to authentication generated by the first electronic device (501) and / or information related to authentication generated by the second electronic device (502), and may set an NDP based on the authentication result. According to one example, if the first electronic device (501) succeeds in authentication with the second electronic device (502), the first electronic device (501) may set an NDP with the second electronic device (502). The first electronic device (501) may control the first communication circuit (610) to set an NDP and communicate with the second electronic device (502) through the NDP by referring to frequency band and / or channel information included in the first message and / or the second message.

[0365] According to one embodiment, a first electronic device (e.g., the first electronic device (501) of FIG. 5) may include a first communication circuit (e.g., the first communication circuit (610) of FIG. 6) that supports neighbor awareness networking (NAN). The first electronic device (501) may include a second communication circuit that supports short-range wireless communication other than the NAN. The first electronic device (501) may include a memory (e.g., the memory (630) of FIG. 6) that stores at least one computer program. The first electronic device (501) may include at least one processor (e.g., the processor (620) of FIG. 6). The at least one computer program may include instructions for controlling the first communication circuit (610) or the second communication circuit when individually or collectively executed by the at least one processor (620) to cause the electronic device to broadcast, before discovering the second electronic device (502), a first message including first information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged between the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) in a process of performing authentication. The at least one computer program may include instructions for receiving, before discovering the second electronic device (502), a second message including second information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged between the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) in a process of performing authentication, from the second electronic device (502).The at least one computer program may include instructions for controlling the first communication circuit (610) to discover the second electronic device (502), divide the data related to authentication based on a size determined based on the first information and the second information, and transmit at least one third message including each of the divided data to the second electronic device (502) through the NAN. The at least one computer program may include instructions for performing communication with the second electronic device (502) through an NDP (NAN data path) established based on the data related to authentication and the data related to authentication transmitted by the second electronic device (502).

[0366] In a first electronic device (501) according to one embodiment, the first information may include information indicating a maximum size of data that may be included in the third message.

[0367] In a first electronic device (501) according to one embodiment, the first information may include information indicating a maximum size of data that may be included in a message received by the first electronic device (501) during an authentication process of the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502).

[0368] In a first electronic device (501) according to one embodiment, the third message may include a NAN service discovery frame (SDF) follow-up message.

[0369] In a first electronic device (501) according to one embodiment, an instruction for controlling the first communication circuit (610) or the second communication circuit to transmit the third message to the second electronic device (502) via the NAN may include an instruction for generating the third message to include the segmented data in a service descriptor attribute (SDA) field when the size of the segmented data is less than or equal to a specified size, or an instruction for generating the third message to include the segmented data in a service discovery extension attribute (SDEA) field when the size of the segmented data exceeds the specified size.

[0370] In a first electronic device (501) according to one embodiment, the at least one computer program may further include instructions for controlling the first communication circuit to broadcast the first message while performing an operation of discovering the second electronic device (502).

[0371] In a first electronic device (501) according to one embodiment, the at least one computer program may further include instructions for controlling the second communication circuit to broadcast the first message while performing an operation of discovering the second electronic device (502).

[0372] In a first electronic device (501) according to one embodiment, the at least one computer program may further include instructions for controlling the second communication circuit to broadcast the first message before initiating an operation of discovering the second electronic device (502).

[0373] In a first electronic device (501) according to one embodiment, the at least one computer program may further include instructions for controlling the first communication circuit (610) to divide data related to authentication using a specified size and transmit at least one fourth message including the divided data to the second electronic device (502) through the NAN when the second message is not received. The number of the third messages may be smaller than the number of the fourth messages.

[0374] In a recording medium storing at least one computer program including instructions that, when executed individually or collectively by at least one processor (e.g., the processor 620 of FIG. 6) of a first electronic device (e.g., the first electronic device (501) of FIG. 5) according to one embodiment, cause the first electronic device (501) to perform operations, the operations may include an operation of broadcasting a first message including first information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during a process in which the first electronic device (501) and a second electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502) of FIG. 5) perform authentication, prior to discovery of the second electronic device (502). The above operations may include receiving, from the second electronic device (502), a second message including second information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication, before discovering the second electronic device (502). The above operations may include, after discovering the second electronic device (502), an operation of segmenting data related to authentication based on a size determined based on the first information and the second information, and transmitting at least one third message including the segmented data to the second electronic device (502) via a neighbor awareness networking (NAN). The above operations may include an operation of performing communication with the second electronic device (502) via a NAN data path (NDP) established based on the data related to authentication and the data related to authentication transmitted by the second electronic device (502).

[0375] In a recording medium according to one embodiment, the first information may include information indicating a maximum size of data that can be included in a third message transmitted by the first electronic device (501) and / or information indicating a maximum size of data that can be included in a message received by the first electronic device (501) during an authentication process of the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502).

[0376] In a recording medium according to one embodiment, the third message may include a NAN service discovery frame (SDF) follow-up message.

[0377] In a recording medium according to one embodiment, the operation of transmitting the third message to the second electronic device (502) via the NAN may include: generating the third message to include the segmented data in a service descriptor attribute (SDA) field when the size of the segmented data is less than a specified size; or generating the third message to include the segmented data in a service discovery extension attribute (SDEA) field when the size of the segmented data exceeds the specified size.

[0378] In a recording medium according to one embodiment, the operations may further include, when the second message is not received, an operation of segmenting data related to authentication using a specified size and transmitting at least one fourth message including the segmented data to the second electronic device (502) via the NAN. The number of the third messages may be smaller than the number of the fourth messages.

[0379] A method of operating a first electronic device (e.g., the first electronic device (501) of FIG. 5) according to one embodiment may include an operation of broadcasting a first message including first information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during a process of performing authentication between the first electronic device (501) and a second electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502) of FIG. 5) before discovering the second electronic device (502). The method of operating the first electronic device (501) may include an operation of receiving, from the second electronic device (502) before discovering the second electronic device (502), a second message including second information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during a process of performing authentication between the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502). The operating method of the first electronic device (501) may include an operation of discovering the second electronic device (502), segmenting data related to authentication based on a size determined based on the first information and the second information, and transmitting at least one third message including the segmented data to the second electronic device (502) through a neighbor awareness networking (NAN). The operating method of the first electronic device (501) may include an operation of performing communication with the second electronic device (502) through a NDP (NAN data path) established based on the data related to authentication and the data related to authentication transmitted by the second electronic device (502).

[0380] A second electronic device (e.g., the second electronic device (502) of FIG. 5) according to one embodiment may include a first communication circuit (e.g., the first communication circuit (710) of FIG. 7) that performs neighbor awareness networking (NAN). The second electronic device (502) may include a second communication circuit that supports short-range wireless communication other than the NAN. The second electronic device (502) may include a memory (e.g., the memory (730) of FIG. 7) that stores at least one computer program. The second electronic device (502) may include at least one processor (e.g., the processor (720) of FIG. 7). The at least one computer program may include instructions, when individually or collectively executed by the at least one processor (720), to cause the second electronic device (502) to receive a first message including first information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication. The at least one computer program may include instructions to control the first communication circuit (710) or the second communication circuit to transmit a second message including second information related to a size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during a process in which the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502) perform authentication, to the first electronic device (501) before discovering the second electronic device (502). The at least one computer program may include instructions for receiving, from the first electronic device (501), a third message comprising at least a portion of data related to authentication, the third message being segmented based on a size determined based on the first information and the second information, after discovering the second electronic device (502).The at least one computer program may include instructions for transmitting a fifth message, which includes at least a portion of data related to authentication, to the first electronic device, the fifth message being segmented based on a size determined based on the first information and the second information. The at least one computer program may include instructions for performing communication with the first electronic device (501) through an NDP (NAN data path) established based on the data related to authentication and the data related to authentication transmitted by the first electronic device (501).

[0381] In a second electronic device (502) according to one embodiment, the second information may include information indicating a maximum size of data that may be included in a fifth message transmitted by the second electronic device (502) and / or information indicating a maximum size of data that may be included in a message received by the second electronic device (502) during an authentication process of the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502).

[0382] In a second electronic device (502) according to one embodiment, the fifth message may include a NAN service discovery frame (SDF) follow-up message.

[0383] In a second electronic device (502) according to one embodiment, the instruction for controlling the first communication circuit (710) to transmit the fifth message to the first electronic device (501) via the NAN may include an instruction for generating the fifth message to include the segmented data in a service descriptor attribute (SDA) field when the size of the segmented data is less than a specified size, or an instruction for generating the fifth message to include the segmented data in a service discovery extension attribute (SDEA) field when the size of the segmented data exceeds the specified size.

[0384] In a second electronic device (502) according to one embodiment, the at least one computer program may further include instructions for controlling the first communication circuit (710) to divide data related to authentication using a specified size and transmit at least one sixth message including the divided data to the first electronic device (501) through the NAN when the first message is not received. The number of the fifth messages may be smaller than the number of the sixth messages.

Claims

1. In the first electronic device (501), A first communication circuit supporting NAN (neighbor awareness networking); A second communication circuit supporting short-range wireless communication other than the above NAN; A memory (630) storing at least one computer program; and comprising at least one processor (620), The at least one computer program, when executed individually or collectively by the at least one processor (620), causes the electronic device to: Controlling the first communication circuit (610) or the second communication circuit to broadcast a first message including first information related to the size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during the process of performing authentication between the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502), before discovering the second electronic device (502); Receive a second message from the second electronic device (502) before discovering the second electronic device (502), which includes second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during the process of performing authentication between the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502), After discovering the second electronic device (502), the first communication circuit (610) is controlled to divide the authentication-related data based on the size determined based on the first information and the second information, and to transmit at least one third message including each of the divided data to the second electronic device (502) through the NAN. A first electronic device (501) including instructions for performing communication with the second electronic device (502) through an NDP (NAN data path) established based on data related to the authentication and data related to the authentication transmitted by the second electronic device (502).

2. In paragraph 1, The above first information is A first electronic device (501) comprising information indicating the maximum size of data that can be included in the third message.

3. In paragraph 1, The above first information is A first electronic device (501) comprising information indicating the maximum size of data that can be included in a message received during an authentication process of the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502).

4. In paragraph 1, The third message above is A first electronic device (501) including a NAN service discovery frame (SDF) follow-up message.

5. In paragraph 4, An instruction for controlling the first communication circuit (610) or the second communication circuit to transmit the third message to the second electronic device (502) via the NAN. If the size of the segmented data is less than or equal to the specified size, the third message is generated to include the segmented data in the service descriptor attribute (SDA) field, or A first electronic device (501) including an instruction for generating the third message to include the segmented data in a service discovery extension attribute (SDEA) field when the size of the segmented data exceeds the specified size.

6. In paragraph 1, At least one computer program above A first electronic device (501) further comprising instructions for controlling the first communication circuit to broadcast the first message while performing an operation of discovering the second electronic device (502).

7. In paragraph 1, At least one computer program above A first electronic device (501) further comprising instructions for controlling the second communication circuit to broadcast the first message while performing an operation of discovering the second electronic device (502).

8. In paragraph 1, At least one computer program above A first electronic device further comprising instructions for controlling the second communication circuit to broadcast the first message prior to initiating an operation of discovering the second electronic device (502).

9. In paragraph 1, At least one computer program above If the second message is not received, the first communication circuit (610) further includes instructions for controlling the first communication circuit (610) to divide the data related to authentication using a specified size and transmit at least one fourth message including the divided data to the second electronic device (502) through the NAN. The number of the third messages is smaller than the number of the fourth messages in the first electronic device (501).

10. A recording medium storing at least one computer program including instructions that cause the first electronic device (501) to perform operations when executed individually or collectively by at least one processor (620) of the first electronic device (501). The above actions An operation of broadcasting a first message including first information related to the size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during the process of performing authentication between the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502), prior to discovery of the second electronic device (502); An operation of receiving a second message, including second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during the process of performing authentication between the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502), from the second electronic device (502) prior to discovering the second electronic device (502); After discovering the second electronic device (502), an operation of segmenting data related to authentication based on a size determined based on the first information and the second information, and transmitting at least one third message including the segmented data to the second electronic device (502) through NAN (neighbor awareness networking); and A recording medium including an operation of performing communication with the second electronic device (502) through an NDP (NAN data path) established based on the data related to the authentication and the data related to the authentication transmitted by the second electronic device (502).

11. In paragraph 10, The above first information is A recording medium including information indicating a maximum size of data that can be included in a third message transmitted by the first electronic device (501) and / or information indicating a maximum size of data that can be included in a message received by the first electronic device (501) during an authentication process of the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502).

12. In paragraph 10, The third message above is A recording medium containing a NAN service discovery frame (SDF) follow-up message.

13. In paragraph 12, The operation of transmitting the third message to the second electronic device (502) through the NAN If the size of the segmented data is less than a specified size, an action of generating the third message to include the segmented data in a service descriptor attribute (SDA) field; or A recording medium including an action of generating the third message to include the segmented data in a service discovery extension attribute (SDEA) field when the size of the segmented data exceeds the specified size.

14. In paragraph 10, The above actions If the second message is not received, the method further includes an operation of segmenting data related to authentication using a specified size and transmitting at least one fourth message including the segmented data to the second electronic device (502) through the NAN. A recording medium in which the number of the third message is smaller than the number of the fourth message.

15. In the operating method of the first electronic device (501), An operation of broadcasting a first message including first information related to the size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during the process of performing authentication between the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502), prior to discovery of the second electronic device (502); An operation of receiving a second message, including second information related to the size of data that may be included in a message exchanged during the process of performing authentication between the first electronic device (501) and the second electronic device (502), from the second electronic device (502) prior to discovering the second electronic device (502); After discovering the second electronic device (502), an operation of segmenting data related to authentication based on a size determined based on the first information and the second information, and transmitting at least one third message including the segmented data to the second electronic device (502) through NAN (neighbor awareness networking); and An operating method of a first electronic device (501), including an operation of performing communication with the second electronic device (502) through an NDP (NAN data path) established based on data related to the authentication and data related to the authentication transmitted by the second electronic device (502).

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